- Sponsored by
- Alfresco Landscape & Garden, Barclays Commercial Bank (Cardiff), Speedfast Tool Hire (Cardiff)
- Designed by
- Gaynor Witchard
- Built by
- Alfresco Landscape & Garden
This quintessential old school, British florists garden contains cutting flowers, florist foliage and artifacts from a traditional, vintage flower shop. Inspired by Sally Page's book, The Flower Shop, and her own mother's love of cool pastel shades, designer Gaynor Witchard has combined plants, accessories and landscape to create a space of peace and tranquility.
It’s a stunning effect and highlights ways to reuse vintage fabrics, containers and materials to create quirky but pretty features in the garden. Even the flower beds are petal shaped and contain favourite plants of calming white and pastels with surprising accents added with the stunning spiky, silver, sword like leaves of Astelia baksii and Astelia chatamica. Florist flowers such as Tulipa ‘Evita’, Gerbera ‘Everlast Pink’ and Fritillaria imperialis jostle with favourite florist foliage such as Eucalyptus gunnii. Pretty spring flowers such as pink and white ranunculus with Muscari latifolium add a soft touch, while Clematis alpina in mauve and white clamber up rusted spirals that burst from the borders.
'My garden is about slowing down to a quieter rhythm and enjoying the space we have; a different way of living to the fast pace of city or town life; focusing on how it changes with the seasons and a look back to a time, with fondness, when we perhaps felt most comfortable and lived more simply. The rusty plant supports, old garden implements and china teacup bird feeders show that anything can be used in a garden with a little imagination. Even things that aren't used for their original purpose now give a home to a plant, or bring an interesting feature to the garden,’ explains Gaynor.
'The garden shows people that limited space doesn't mean limited options, and that the challenge of a small garden often leads to inspirational solutions.'