So, you’ve designed your garden. The sizes and positions of flower beds, the separate potager, the terrace for entertaining, plants, shrubs and trees have been sourced, and because I’m the eternal optimist, you’ve finally committed to a compost bin. In general, you’re ready to create your own bit of paradise. But hang on just a minute. Have you taken care of the details? Remember –

It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
John Wooden

A garden can appear to be lovely but in order for it to function well, there are several details to consider. Some are obvious and some quite subtle. You’d be surprised how often both kinds are overlooked. Based on my experience, I’ve come up with a rough list. Here we go –

1. Access to water from the various parts of your property. Even if you have installed drip irrigation, it is a good idea to have multiple sources of water handy. Unless of course, the garden is fairly tiny and a single hose would be adequate to reach everywhere.
2. Are there well marked paths connecting the areas of the garden? These don’t have to be permanent paths of stone or brick. Simple pavers or gravel/wood bark marking the trail would do. Personally, I’m not big on anything that can be painful underfoot. Just remember, weeds will grow and need to be diligently controlled. Pavers should be placed so they are easy to step on without demanding too much of a stretch of the leg.
3. On the subject of paths, It has been said that the ideal width is where two people can comfortably walk side by side. I generally ensure that a wheelbarrow can be pushed along without any trouble. Edging the paths is a matter of taste and style – do you like it a bit wild with plants spilling over or more formal and restrained is up to the gardener.
4. If you are madly in love with swathes of grass ( I’m not judging), and you entertain regularly, bear in mind that shoes with heels are not happy at all walking on such a surface.
5. Now we come to steps. Chose material that is neither too slippery nor too rough. Wood and certain types of stone are best. A friend of mine once called me over to see her new ‘Moroccan’
terrace. I arrived to see gorgeous, handmade Moroccan tiles covering the surface of the terrace and steps. It was too late to tell my friend she’d made a big mistake. Needless to say, this area was treacherous even when slightly wet and entirely unusable all through the winter.
6. There are ideal dimensions when building stairs. The height of the risers should be 7 inches, the depth 11 inches, the width no less than 36 inches and the stair rail between 30 to 34 inches above the step.
7. The garden should be designed to heighten the senses. Plant aromatic herbs and fragrant plants where they can be enjoyed as one passes by. I also like placing plants like roses, jasmine, lilac and wisteria near the house so they can send their fragrance through open windows. Similarly, plants that encourage our tactile nature should find themselves within easy reach of a visitor.
8. Every garden should have several places to rest or just stop to look at a view. Benches, statuary, water features are all critical elements in a well designed garden.
9. If possible, add features like hammocks, chaise longues that invite one to nap, read or day dream. Umbrellas and trees can provide shade.
10. It is best if the vegetable garden is within picking distance from the kitchen and outdoor cooking area. If that is not feasible, at least keep some culinary herbs near by.
11. In your entertaining space, apart from the dining table, keep additional surfaces where guests can put down a drink while they scrutinize your prize worthy roses or eggplants or hydrangea. Otherwise, for days afterwards you will be unearthing glassware from the oddest areas. Balanced in the fork of a shrub, upturned over a branch, nestled in the boxwood, in a flower pot …
12. In planning your garden, consider ‘borrowed’ views to visually expand your garden. Furthermore, try to ensure that the garden looks interesting from all directions. There will be a natural way in which you like your visitors to walk the garden. The reverse walk should be pleasant as well.
13. For yourself, the perennial gardener, keep tools like secateurs and favorite weeder close by. I also keep a collection of vases to plunge freshly cut flowers in them right away. A few not so so precious ones are kept so I can send a friend home with a bunch of peonies and such.
14. Finally, keep your garden as a true reflection of yourself.

This list is by no means complete. It is a good start. And sometimes the end. It’ll do. By all means add other thoughts that seem compelling to you and I have overlooked. Do please let me know?

A path at Rocky Hills

Ready for a gathering

Heritage rose up close. It has a lovely lemony fragrance.

A path that links the front and back of the property.

Artichoke in copper

Walkway made interesting

Wisteria

Glimpse Of Spring
She arrived without fanfare
a quick visit
a prelude to the grand arrival
She thought she’d be unnoticed
but I saw her
I caught a glimpse of Spring last week.

Dear Diary

Since we are planning and preparing for a new season of gardening, now is a good time to start keeping a garden journal. Putting down ideas, plans, designs, progress, day to day horticultural happenings are extremely useful and enlightening. My paternal grandmother wrote a diary every day and I remember being very intrigued by that. She never encouraged me to do the same but I must have inherited the journaling gene because since my 20s, I have always kept journals. At first it was about my life in general – I vented, ruminated and, celebrated all the goings on. I wrote about my hopes and plans. The pages of my journals bore witness to my tears over disappointments, pride over triumphs and mostly a whole lot of mundane rubbish.
As a scientist, I learned to keeping meticulous notes of my work on a daily basis. Once I acquired some land on which to garden, maintaining a log of my activities combined with my observations and thoughts was natural. Keeping notes leaves nothing to memory which is notoriously unreliable. The records allow for comparing, referencing and following the progress of the garden over the years.
I’m always shocked by how inaccurate I am when remembering something that occurred in the garden. My garden entries are testimonials to this fact. I’ll be informing no one in particular about the delay in or early blooming of certain flowers only to read that the pattern is exactly the same as before. The same for how I recall the weather and how it affected my garden. If word of how poorly I recall these matters got out, those who must deal with me on a regular basis might rethink the association. But the truth is, most people have the same problem. Hence, it is well worth the time and effort to write down all relevant points.
Tasks, expenses, opinions, successes, failures, ideas and dreams all get written down. What is in bloom or in fruit, what the temperatures have been and how much rain has fallen are noted. Pests and problems are lamented. Nothing at length: just succinct reporting. There is the most to write about during the busy season which of course means there is the least time available to do so. I have often lapsed in putting down all the garden goings on and lived to regret it. A forgotten brilliant idea is plainly useless.
I do take lots of photos and they are incredibly helpful. But like a doting parent, I tend to capture the garden only when it is on it’s best behavior and not when it is throwing a tantrum and presenting itself in a weedy, pest ridden state. Amends are being made and I have begun to capture those not so proud moments. Photos do not however convey emotions, opinions and dreams. What I think I must do, might do, want to do can’t be surmised from an image. So it is still necessary to record those down.
Journals don’t get written with a view to leaving a legacy but there is a part of me that harbors the thought that perhaps one day when this piece of earth is no longer mine, my writings will enable the next gardener to understand why, what and how it used to be.
What would be interesting is to see how influential what goes on in the garden has on my writings in my personal diary which, over the years has become more reflective and less self absorbed. Did I write deep, poetic and/or witty thoughts the same week the garden looked great and all the related tasks got done? Do the seasons in the garden parallel the seasons in my life? I’ll bet there is a direct correlation but, I’ll set that project aside for now. There is much else to get done.

Three hyacinths

Making a start

On it’s way!

Voila!