Japanese Gardens – Serenity in a time of Uncertainty!
May 21, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
The first scene captures for me the best of Japanese gardens. Large rock formations, still water, as well as cascading waterfalls, and plenty of colourful Acers {maples}. A place to reflect as you gaze at the reflections in the lake, sometimes disturbed by the Koi carp that are swimming around. ...
Beautiful Bloomers for May!
May 15, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
May is so full of promise in gardens, so I couldn’t resist another few photos of yet more blooming blossoms! Alliums have stunning globes of flowers held proud on strong stalks, and the first photo shows Allium Purple Sensation, one of my favourites. They are especially good for smaller gardens...
Some reliable plants that are flowering right now!
May 7, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
April and May is the time where gardens start to burst into colour and so i thought i would show you photos of some plants that flower at this time of year that to date have always been reliable and reasonably easy to grow. The first photo shows an exceptional...
REDESIGNING AN 8 ACRE GARDEN IN OXFORD!
May 3, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
One of the transformations I designed in this beautiful 8 acre garden in Old Boars Hill, Oxford. Read on to see the before and after photos. This collage of photos shows the total transformation of this large country garden set in Old Boar’s Hill, Oxford, which I had the...
INTERIOR DESIGN MEETS EXTERIOR DESIGN BRINGING THE OUTSIDE INSIDE
Apr 21, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
With so many interior designers designing stunning kitchen, dining and living room extensions to houses, the view onto the garden has become ever more important. Monique Halloran of Spiering & Co. has been designing gardens for over 25 years, and the first photo shows a beautiful large garden she designed...
Broughton Grange Wonderful NGS Gardens in Oxfordshire!
Aug 12, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Broughton Grange was owned for 200 years by the Morrell family until it was sold in 1992. The gardens are set in 350 acres and since the change of ownership have been undergoing significant and interesting changes. In 2001 the award winning landscape designer Tom Stuart Smith was asked to...
CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW 2019!
May 29, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Chelsea Flower Show seldom lets you down and this year was no exception! Interesting gardens with a theme of naturalistic planting and more informal landscaping was evident in many of the designs. The first photo shows the ‘naturalistic’ theme of the show perfectly and it depicts Andy Sturgeon’s gold medal...
Waterperry Gardens opened for the NGS Gardens for Charity!
May 15, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
The National Garden Scheme, #NGS #Gardens, gives us all an opportunity to see the most wonderful gardens in Britain whilst supporting some of the best nursing and health charities in the UK. However these actors or players on the stage at the new amphitheatre in Waterperry Gardens, Oxford, were a...
Dahlias in their full glory! Now is the time to plant the tubers
Mar 8, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Dahlias give a wonderful burst of colour in your garden borders from mid-Summer through to the first frosts in late Autumn. They are also easy to grow! The colour range is huge as are the flower heads themselves, so they definitely make a statement in your garden. I often design...
Interior Design to Landscape Design – Bringing the Outside Inside!
Feb 13, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Think of the difference that a beautifully designed garden will bring to your senses when viewed from the interior of your home, and how different your mood would be if you simply looked out onto a patch of grass with messy planting. The vogue for open plan kitchen extensions with...
Colour in your Garden – Favourite Colour Combinations for Town and Country Gardens!
Feb 13, 2019 - POSTED BY Joss Earl - Gardeners Choice
Are you someone who enjoys plants with vivid colour contrasts to stimulate your senses? It used to be considered that ‘hot’ colours belonged in countries of sunny climates and ‘soft’ palettes suited the grey of the UK weather. With the heating up of our climate, perhaps it’s time to revisit...
Before and After Gardens - How Garden Design can Transform your Home!
Jan 8, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
When you say you are in the middle of a refurbishment or a new build, the first thing that most people think of is the building and the interior, picturing what it will look like. Gardens though can play such an important part in the whole picture of an amazing...
Wonderful NGS gardens at Blewbury Oxfordshire
Dec 5, 2018 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
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Blewbury gardens open once a year under the National Garden Scheme and what a beautiful group of gardens they are! The Manor House and Hall Barn are the largest in the group, and are full of interesting garden rooms, but the smaller gardens all managed to lead the visitor on...
A Glimpse at the Gardens of Hilcote!
Dec 5, 2018 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - Gardeners Choice
This evocative painting was found in a small building tucked away to the side of one of the many garden ‘rooms’ of Hilcote in the Cotswolds. It sums up the spirit of this Arts and Crafts garden so beautifully. Hilcote sits in the Cotswolds and is surrounded by rolling countryside,...
Wonderful NGS gardens at Blewbury Oxfordshire
Jun 22, 2018 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Blewbury gardens open once a year under the National Garden Scheme and what a beautiful group of gardens they are! The Manor House and Hall Barn are the largest in the group, and are full of interesting garden rooms, but the smaller gardens all managed to lead the visitor on...
Holland Park, 22.5 Hectares of Beautifully Landscaped Gardens!
Mar 23, 2018 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
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Holland Park has to be one of the loveliest parks in London. It is full of surprises, unexpected sculptures, a simply stunning Japanese garden, and hectares of idyllic parkland that is so naturally landscaped you believe you are in the middle of the countryside. The woodlands especially are abundant with...
6 Collages of Gardens to Inspire!
Feb 22, 2018 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Garden photos generally show one view or angle of a garden, and so rarely capture the essence of the whole garden at a glance. Most of us are pushed for time, and so I thought to capture the essence of a few of the amazing projects we have done over...
Dahlias - Invaluable Colour from June till the first frost!
Feb 13, 2018 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Dahlias have a wonderful range of colours and shapes for you to choose from and are very free flowering, often bringing colour to your garden from June till the first frosts. They are tuberous rooted perennials, and a good time to order the tubers is now, from February-April, planting them...
Beautiful Contemporary Water Features!
Dec 4, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
A Koi Carp pond with a difference! This contemporary water feature is set in a very long, narrow garden, where in order to widen the feel of the garden, I based the whole design on a 45% angle off the house. The terrace leading out of the house is on...
Landscapes in Art
Oct 19, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
A weekend walk to take in the beauty of the landscaped gardens at Blenheim Palace led me to a surprise hidden gem, The Oxfordshire Museum, which is situated in the heart of Woodstock. After an hour of drinking in the stunning, natural beauty created by Capability Brown at Blenheim Palace,...
Landscape Design - Stunningly Beautiful Prairie Gardens
Oct 6, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
This 8 acre garden is like a huge Impressionist painting that invites you to walk in and around it. In fact Home and Garden Magazine described the Sussex Prairie Gardens as “A living tableau of plants – a vast, moving sea of densely planted perennials and grasses on a scale...
Summer in the Oxford Botanical Gardens!
Aug 1, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Last month, 396 years ago, the Oxford Botanical Gardens was founded ‘To promote the furtherance of learning and to glorify nature’. It is the oldest Botanic Garden in Britain and it is still fulfilling the mission it set out to do nearly 400 years ago. The setting of the landscape...
Rousham Garden designed by the Father of the English Art of Landscape Design
Jun 13, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
William Kent (1685-1748) was an artist, with his work encompassing painting, interiors, landscapes, architecture, furniture and book illustrations. He is however best remembered as the ‘father’ of English Landscape Design and without him there might arguably never have been Lancelot ‘Capablility’ Brown. Whilst he was clearly influenced by the ‘Grand...
The Beauty of Blenheim
May 3, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
We were bathed in sunshine over the weekend and I took the opportunity to visit Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, a beautiful palace set in many acres of parkland, redesigned by Capability Brown between 1763 - 1774. How did he get the name Capability? Apparently on viewing a prospective client’s estate...
Spring has Sprung at the NGS Garden Open Day at Trinity College, Oxford!
Mar 31, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
As I have just been honoured to have my own garden accepted by the NGS to be open to the public in May, I searched through which of their gardens to visit on Mother’s Day with my son, and came up with Trinity College in Oxford. The college itself is...
Water Features that Transform the Garden – Whatever the Size
Feb 14, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
Nature by Design! Man has always sought to tame nature and this beautiful small lake that we created in Old Boar’s Hill, just outside Oxford, is a stunning example how, by mimicking nature, you can create the best of both worlds. Designed Nature. Part of the beauty of water is...
Inspirational Companies Exhibiting at The Surface Design Show
Feb 10, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
This year’s Surface Design Show at the Business Design Centre had some wonderful exhibitors. To view the whole list and see for yourself the SDAwards go to www.surfacedesignshow.com . This blog is about the ones that stood out for me, and the stand of Sterling Studios with their exquisite Eglomise...
A Japanese Oasis in the heart of London
Feb 3, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice
The Kyoto Garden is a stunningly beautiful sanctuary in the heart of London’s Holland Park. What with the sound of running water, the stately peacocks and other birds, and the giant Koi Carp swimming in the pond, the Kyoto Garden really does achieve a Zen like harmony in the centre...
Small and Beautiful Town Garden
Nov 21, 2016 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
‘Who needs to go to Giverny?’ That was the comment one visitor made when she first laid eyes on this small and evocative town garden situated in Old Headington, Oxford. The garden is constantly on view from the house, so it was really important to create an ever changing picture...
It’s Autumn and Time to Start Planting!
Sep 21, 2016 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
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Whilst shrubs and trees form the backbone of a good planting design, it’s the perennials that bring that ‘country garden’ feel to your borders. Perennials add glorious splashes of colour to your borders at different times of the year and because they die down in the winter, it is possible...
Inspirational Before and After Gardens
Aug 3, 2015 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
Personally I love a blank canvas! And although some of these before photos look anything but blank, being choked full of weeds and overgrown shrubbery, they are the perfect starting point to let your imagination go. Your only restraints are the boundaries, the overall setting and the house itself. When...
A Quiet Garden in the City
Apr 20, 2015 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Gardens evoke thoughts of tranquil, green oases – places to relax in and unwind after a hard day’s work. But if you live in the city centre you are probably surrounded by constant noise and then some of that noise will intrude into your relaxation. I have recently had a...
Creating an Oasis in the Centre of Oxford
Nov 3, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees, but in this case I nearly couldn’t see the trees for the weeds! This small back garden in the centre of Oxford had been neglected for several years by previous owners, and then had to wait its turn till the house...
Five Rhododendron AGM Winners
Aug 14, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
In Joyce's 'Ulysses', Rhododendrons play a significant role in the early courtship of Leopold and Molly, and amongst the Zomi tribes of India, they are used poetically to signify a lady. They are the state flower of Washington and West Virginia, as well as of several states in India and...
Grow your own herbs
Jun 4, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Many of the herbs grown in the UK originally come from the Mediterranean and so are happiest in a sunny spot. However I've found most herbs do fine in what's termed semi-shade, where there's about 4 hours sunlight per day, and some more vigorous growers, such as chervil, coriander and...
Can you help the bees?
Apr 15, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Bees need pollen and nectar for food and we need bees to survive to pollinate the crops that provide our food. If you have a garden or any outdoor space why not plant a tempting menu for bumblebees? Why bumblebees in particular? Different bees have varying characteristics and the bumblebee...
Sow your seeds today and reap the rewards in the summer
Mar 11, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Thompson and Morgan have their own breeding programme and have introduced a stunning new variety of one of my favourite poppies, Papaver Patty’s Plum. T & M’s new variety is called Papaver Orientale Plum Pudding and it is both long flowering and strong stemmed. It has a beautiful plum colour,...
