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The M&G Garden

Andy Sturgeon’s garden might look a bit beyond most of our purses, but some elements are surprising accessible. Here he tells us how.

“The circles in the stone cladding pick up the shapes in the copper sculpture”

  • Iris chrysographes

    Add plants with strong vertical form

    Iris chrysographes has extremely dark, purple flowers. The leaves add strong vertical accents amongst the herbaceous beds  and the flowers give pinpoints of dense colour among the softness of the other plants.

  • circles in the square

    Circles in the square

    Add details where one least expects it. I asked the quarry who supplied the stone cladding to drill random-sized circles in the panels. Here they are mounted on a wooden frame and lit from within at night, but they could simply be laid onto a plain blockwork wall. The circles pick up the shape of the copper sculpture that runs through the garden.

  • rendered walls

    Get out the paintbrush

    Rendered walls are  often painted white or variations thereof but I’ve chosen a colour specifically because it harmonises with everything else in the garden. The colour is Farrow & Ball London Clay.

  • cercidiphyllum japonicum

    Get the most out of your trees

    The katsura or Cercidiphyllum japonicum is a really valuable small garden tree. The new leaf growth is coppery and when the leaves fall in autumn they produce the most amazing smell of burnt sugar when crushed underfoot. The bark is attractive and overall it offers a strong structure in the garden.

  • ilex crenata

    It's not box...

    I’m using Ilex crenata instead of box for the topiary domes because it’s just far less prone to pests and diseases and it does almost the same job. I like to use these shapes for year-round structure in the garden. If you put them among perennials, they are revealed when everything else dies back in winter.