The Full monty

I was asked the other day, if I was to start Longmeadow again would I do anything differently? Without hesitation I said, “everything”. This is because all the really significant design plans and planting were done over a quarter of a century ago. I have no regrets at all about that, but I now have wholly different influences and factors affecting my life.

Unless you have a designer in to do it all for you, almost all gardens evolve witha few years back, I was surprised by the extent that fashions have always influenced design more than anything else. Also necessity is very rarely the mother of invention. It was the invention of greenhouses, and of secateurs, that transformed fruit tree pruning.