The Winter Garden / Great Book

What I'm reading now. One of my favorite gardening books.

THE WINTER GARDEN

Structure, planting and romance in the garden in winter.

Eluned Price

Photographs by Clive Nichols

Author's dedication:

In memory of my beloved parents

Corinne and Justin Price

who taught me how to look

CONTENTS

Introduction

Structure in the Winter Garden

Planting in the Winter Garden

Romance in the Winter Garden

The Plant Directory

Index

Mine is a hardcover first edition published in 1996 with the destjacket. It's a large, beautiful book that is still available used. 

Search for it HERE and fill out form yourself. 

Search for used hardcover editions HERE with title and "hardcover" requested in search parameters.

xo

Bunnies Peeping Over The Tall Grasses

Tour this East Hampton home on Further Lane

HERE. The landscaping is amazing with very

little mowed lawn but lots of native plantings 

looking quite wile. Love it all♡🐰🌿

Pool Complex at a Friend's House Yesterday

I went to a delightful luncheon yesterday and photographed my friend's pool complex from inside the house. Notice the covered TV pavilion! The food was delicious too. I came home and cut the grass to work off some of the calories and I'm so glad I did because it's raining this morning.

The weather in my area has been so nice and with no need for air conditioning except for maybe 3 days. I'm expecting Missy for a few days starting tomorrow morning. xo

An Autumn Cathedral with Trees

This entrance was well designed so many years ago. The mature trees finally met in the middle to form an amazing natural archway. via

 

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. 

The second best time is now."

Chinese proverb

Before There Were Patios, We Sat On The Grass

I took this photo at a realtor open house near my cottage.

The dwelling was a caretaker's cottage and the grounds were fabulous. Who needs a patio when you have vintage wicker furniture and a beautiful lawn? The cottage was delightful with no central air and was really untouched since it was built. It had always been maintained and lived in and was being offered for rent. The outdoor furnishings were included and there was garage/barn for storage. There were custom waterproof covers for the chairs to protect them from the rain. The open house was years ago as are my pics. Due to Covid, there are very few (if any) open houses these days. Just virtual tours and private showings by appointment.

Landscape Perfection

This is ideal, isn't it? Pick one area of your property to be perfect and let the rest go natural. I love this landscape design, don't you?🌿 photo source

Hello JULY + Stunning Alabama Home

This home in Birmingham, Alabama stopped me in my tracks. Have you ever seen landscaping so well designed, planned, and executed? It is really absolute perfection, isn't it? I love the wall and arched entrance to the back garden, both made of brick and painted white to match the home. I wonder if that was added later or original to the brick home? Found on Instagram with more photos of this house on the post.

HELLO, JULY

Found on Instagram

I subscribed to my own blog yesterday to see what the new emails will look like and I'm very pleased. I still got my old email from Feedburner last night at almost 10pm which is going away some time in July. This is a partial screenshot of the NEW email subscription above. It arrived this morning. There is a place to unfollow (unsubscribe) in case you don't like it. When you discover that you are no longer getting the old emails you can follow/subscribe to this new site. Thanks so much!!! xo 

New Posts, Updates & Comments

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Stunning Architecture

So much to love in one photo. I just finished three hours of mowing so I can appreciate this lawn and simple plantings that do not detract from the architecture. via

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This Cottage is Gorgeous

The owners of this darling cape cod have mastered the art of curb appeal, right? via

❤️home❤️

Gorgeous Oxfordshire Gardens

via

Too gorgeous for words.

I found the original source for both of these English Country House gardens. This is the text for the walled garden above: In the walled ‘secret garden’, Arne designed a cutting garden with a simple grid layout, which lends itself to tulips (such as purple ‘Backpacker’ and maroon ‘Havran’) and other spring bulbs. After flowering, they are lifted to create room for annuals. Read the full article with more photos: Arne Maynard reinvigorates the garden of an Oxfordshire manor house.

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Fence with Horizontal Slats

I like this fence.

The Adirondack chairs too.

Fencing is on my mind since the picket fence around my air conditioning unit is in need of repair. It's on the north side of my cottage and never gets any sun and the pine boards are rotting. I have replaced numerous pickets over the years and this year I am planning on having my house painted and the fence repaired. Article and more fence pics here.

A Winter Garden in Sweden

Winters are long in Sweden so why not design your garden to be beautiful in the snow?

Read the article about how Maria Dremo Sundström achieved this look with hers.

I wonder if she was inspired by Dutch Landscape Designer. Piet Oudolf? See a video about his Dutch gardens and a film documentary below:

Beautiful Endpapers: Fantasy Garden with Bookplate

Read the poem on the bookplate here.

Click above image to enlarge.

A Beautiful Winter Landscape

There is beauty in the natural winter landscape if you don't cut everything back. This one is especially lovely. via

Manor House Dusted with Snow

Snow is such beautiful decoration for the plantings around this English Country House. A dusting is the perfect amount too requiring no shoveling. via

Row of Trees with Fog

This is a lovely portrait mode photo of a stand of trees, perfectly spaced. When planted long ago, someone had a vision and knew how far apart to plant them so they could mature in place and not be crowded. This is the way trees are supposed to look, flared at the base. It always upsets me when I see landscapers covering the natural flare with mulch volcanoes. via

Topiary Heaven in France

This courtyard in France is stunning. See more photos and read Habitually Chic's blog post about the renovation of a ruin called Les Ramades in Provence here. I am partial to all of the outdoor photographs.

Cloud Pruning, Who Knew?

Yesterday's post about those ancient plantings at Powis Castle opened up a whole new world of CLOUD PRUNING. I have often been drawn to unworldly-looking images of clipped evergreens but never knew the name of the technique called cloud pruning. There are 12 beautiful examples in this article about Jake Hobson who trained in Japan. He's not just any old topiarist but an expert in niwaki, or ‘cloud pruning’, the highly esteemed art of neatly clipping trees into a series of soft cloud-like shapes. The photo above is my favorite. It's #5 in the 12-photo slideshow. Read the fabulous article here. xo

Ancient Plantings at Powis Castle in Wales

No words.

Surreal plantings that have stood the test of time.

via

See many more photos and read more about Powis Castle

Perfect 1727 Colonial

Yes, please.

Such perfection has taken years and years to achieve. Someone had a vision when the shrubbery was planted and knew just how to take care of it. Circa 1727, Essex Connecticut. Just lovely! via