By: Lori Legge

Lori Legge — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:25:34 +0000

Hi Mike… I was one of those who cherished the idea of a protected garden enclave surrounded by walls. When I read your blog I realized how mistaken I was. The security aspect makes infinitely more sense.
But I have realized one aspect of walling off any area with stone is the passive solar storage of daytime heat. I have seen pics of the old Victorian espaliered fruit which required the extra warmth afforded by the stone, but have practical experience in my humble little plot, as to the benefit to plants of a strategically placed rock. I have two perennials in the same bed…one beside a rock…the other on it’s own. The one beside the rock started earlier and grew faster.
Have recently viewed photos of the Capability Brown gardens and the follies and constructed mountain vistas of the time… talk about more money than brains! That was just before the transition from the “vista” school of garden construction where the “garden” was more a “landscape”; to the more practical smaller “cottage garden”, perennial border or walled gardens. Personally I’d take a walled garden any time. I still have a dream of a walled off space with a lovely little glass house in one corner… As I said: a dream.
That is a wonderful pergola…congrats on a showplace garden that is so accessible.

Comments on: Walled Gardens are not what they seem

By: Lori Legge