The very first thing Martin pointed out on Saturday , was that (after several years) Gertrude had been repaired, and her ear had been glued back on. She looked resplendent and complete again amongst the planting . In all honesty , this really was an extremely happy start to my gardening day .

Saturday was a really lovely warm summers day , and Judy joined me in the garden for most of my gardening visit . As I have not seen Judy for a while , it really was quite a lovely thing to spend some time together. Our conversation flowed whilst I gardened, and we decided it was high time we took a photograph of ourselves . So here we are , just being happy and content in the verdant, and floriferous and insect rich garden we have created in just two years. Happiness provided by being in a great garden is something that should never be dismissed.

Judy has not been very well recently, and we talked about how she really finds that the garden provides her with a sense of peace, happiness and enjoyment. I cannot quite express how much I enjoy being able to use my design , plant and horticultural skills to help my great friend. Gardeners really do have an important role to help people work their way through difficult times of their lives by creating great outdoor spaces to enjoy. This is definitely a big part of how , I would like my gardening ,design business and career to develop over the coming years.

This garden never disappoints, infact it really is an entirely joyous experience . On Saturday we spent time discussing the huge benefits of having access to an outdoor space for both your physical and mental health needs. We concluded , that it really doesn’t matter what size the piece of land is, it is more about having access to it , whether you choose to look out onto it, or just sit , walk around or garden in it.

Due to the bifold doors which stretch at least 5m of their lounge this provides a full view of the garden , so even if the weather is not so good, Judy and Martin can look out onto their ever changing garden . We thought a fitting description was that it was like a living giant landscape painting to complete their beautiful art filled home .

We also discussed that if your garden really was tiny , each of the four planting areas at Judy’s ( which are individually no more than 10 – 15 m2 ) have sufficient merit to be a great garden in their own right . Which leaves me thinking , if I had a tiny garden , which of the four would I choose ?

Would it be Gertrude’s garden ? which is full of plants germinated from the top soil seed bank , with some plants bought from Martin and Judys previous home . The dark blue Agapanthus looked stunning against the yellow of the fennel on Saturday.

Would it be the pool garden ? This is very much an on going project , due to the liner having a rip in it. We are almost there with it… having needed to regularly solve several problems along the way , as my previous blogs on Martin and Judy’s new garden. explain .

Would it be the more formal rose and perennial garden ? The combination of the phlox with this rose looked pretty damn perfect on Saturday .

Or would it be the ornamental grass and perennial garden ?

Actually , it is a little difficult to decide, I will think on , on this one .

Judy did say that she would like to have a greater presence of their signature in the garden, which lead onto a bit of a conversation about what plants were very special in their previous garden , which we would consider as there botanical signature.

As I have written countless blogs about this and their previous garden . Here is one , I wrote for Judy as a birthday present a while ago Judys garden. Which reminds me of some of the plants we had in Ironbridge , that have yet to appear in Wellington . Particularly Veronicastrum , Cephalaria and Monbretia. I also scrolled through hundreds of plant images stored on my WordPress account , so here are a few more as a bonus ! So next time , Judy and I can get thinking about new planting .

So, I hope you have enjoyed this blog . My only question to as you as a reader is “ what is your signature plant ? “

Enjoy your summer gardens .