Today, my friend N and I went to the Bud Garden Centre in Burnage for a seminar imparted by Severine Cochard, a local garden designer. We paid £6 for an hour of her knowledge and to get our questions answered. This session was targeted to borders, which I won't have when we move, but I still wanted to go and learn. It was nice to be reassured on things I had learned the past year, but I did learn that bright, tropical colours give the illusion of being closer, while blues and pastels seem to be further away. Thus, if you have a long garden and have hot colours at the bottom, it will bring the garden forward, whereas if you use pastels in a couryard, it will give a sense of more space. I will certainly be using this colour scheme as I am drawn to pastels in any case.
We did an exercise where we had to select 3 plants from the garden centre and explain why we had chosen them. I went for these 3. I chose the spotty Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst White' because I had initially seen and fell in love with it in Bodnant Gardens in Wales but couldn't find one for sale in their shop. Then, I chose the Lamium 'White Nancy' and finally the lovely fern Athyrium 'Applecourt'. I chose this plant combination to carry the silver through the foliage whilst having different textures. They also happen to be great for shady places in the garden, but note they are deciduous and so will die down during the winter months.
Bud is the same business who organised the Levenshulme Open Garden Day which I documented on the blog a few months ago. The owner is lovely and knows her stuff. She finds plants that will do well in our neck of the woods (i.e. Manchester/the North) and will give sound advice. I also love that she supports home grown produce :)
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