This clever evergreen garden has lots of tips you can use in your own garden – an all-evergreen border, hedging used to conceal working areas and brilliant easy tricks for classical garden features and ornaments. A charming and inspiring garden with lots of takeaways.
00:00 Welcome
01:00 The Norfolk Gardens Trust : https://www.norfolkgt.org.uk
01:27 The garden is about 100ft/30m long and 25ft/7.5m wide. Winters equate to a USDA zone 9 but summers are cooler.
01:47 Clever trick to turn a garden shed into a classical folly
02:53 Using the space between the hedge and the boundary fence for storage and work areas.
03:18 Classical parterre and view of Norwich, including Norwich Cathedral
03:43 Low evergreen parterre of box and yew hedging. For alternatives to box, see: The Best Evergreen Shrubs for Clipping into Topiary: https://youtu.be/QwTR7VjPokE
04:06 Alternate Cypress Leylandii ‘Goldcrest’ and Irish yew (Taxus baccata fastigiata)
04:48 Evergreen border: the blue foliage is Rue ‘Jackman’s Blue’. The topiarised shapes are Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’, spiky plants far left are astelia and the grey leaves are Senecio ‘Angel Wings’
05:29 Same evergreen border, see above
06:14 Use of ivy as ground cover. Check that it’s not on a list of invasive plants for your area.
07:19 Ivy grown across the risers of the garden steps
07:34 Wall with ivy, trellis and ferns
09:03 Winter gardens playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrZRLHPUbGmBtHtJ2Y3w_HKmcjJvfp2RQ
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27 Comments
Good morning Alexandra, thank you for your wonderful channel.This is a wonderful garden!
I realize this is an older garden,but their clever designs, and subtle contrasting shades of green colors is beautiful. This garden feels like one is walking through the a large park.
There are so many wonderful ideas. This garden would make a great book on using evergreens.
I can no longer properly comment on your videos because I've run out of adjectives. From now on, I'll just be fumbling along. Fair warning.
Such a great garden to see. Wonderful ideas. (See? Weak!)
The Senecio 'Angel Wings' are amazing, but I figured not for zone 7a since I don't see them here. And, yes, zone 8 or higher. I do have dusty miller (also normally can't take lower than zone 8) that I wintered over outside with a lot of mulch. About half of them survived. Maybe could try that with the angel wings.
Woow, this is one of the most happily situated gardens I have ever seen in my life!!
Thank you Alexandra for sharing this beauty with us every week 💚
Thank you Alexandra. You are such a joy to listen. Cheers and love this garden!!!
ivy hedera will destroy and invade your house. we had it going through the power points.
Does anyone know what kind of tree / shrub is shown at 2:47? I love its shape 🤗
Thank you!
Hello Alexandra, another inspiring video from you. Thank you. There are many ideas here to draw on. I like the idea of hiding a working area behind an inward curving hedge. It is always hard to hide these areas in middle or small-size gardens. The garden with the view is just stunning. I have mixed garden beds with combinations of evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs, perennials and occasional annuals such as cosmos. Evergreens not on your list that work well for clipping, that I have in my garden and recommend, are Pittosporum Tobira, Myrtus Communis, Eleagnus 'Limelight', Luma Apiculata, Viburnum Awabuki (however can be a weed in warmer climates), Osmanthus Fragrans, Osmanthus Burkwoodi. I am always on the lookout for more so your video and list are very helpful. Best wishes…
Can you tell me where I can find cat whiskers lavender ,orthosiphon plant Java tea live , perennial plant pale purple???I’m here in the US and would really like to find this plant if you could help me, I really would like to buy the seeds!!!
Thank you for sharing this garden. It is so beautifully subtle and sophisticated in the most humble way. As much as I love flowers, I truly appreciate the discipline and beauty of this approach. The gentle enticement through the garden to such a splendid view is genius.
The gentlemen have some very good ideas I love there garden
N’
Beautiful display of evergreens. Thank you for sharing.
All the tricks of the 18th century landscape painters packed into one medium-sized garden; no mean feat to accomplish seamlessly on rising ground. Thanks so much for ferreting out this clever garden to enjoy and learn from! Always love your presentations.
Wowee! The green garden with distant valley view is fantastic!
Thanks for sharing. I have similar light and wind exposure with a view. This video is food for thought.
I’ll have to adapt the plant selection to more succulent varieties to resist brush 🔥.
Please consider a pointer to indicate which plants you are speaking about as you describe various features. Possibly this would be helpful to many.
That cat is beautiful!
Yeah, ivy is generally not good to grow here in the pacific NW. In particular, english ivy, which is invasive here. Though I think some grow ivy as an indoor plant, or in pots.
Periwinkle is more common as a vine-groundcover here, but it can still spread at times.
There are a few nice evergreen native groundcovers too, that can sort of be used in a similar way on the ground, like kinnikinnick, which is an evergreen woody and dark glossy leaved low growing and matting groundcover. It looks great.
Many different native and selected cultivars of strawberry also make a great groundcover in the PNW. Some are deciduous, and others are evergreen.
What clever ways of making a garden look good! I love the idea of snaking the main path and using the empty spaces created for utility spaces, like they do with their compost heap. Very nice ideas!
I have to share my new favorite evergreen with my new favorite garden channel 😉 Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard" such a lovely blue and fluffy texture, I watched this one twice to catch all the great ideas in this video!
What an amazing garden with so many clever design ideas!
Their garden is stunning. Such a nice and smart use of textures and layering. Thanks for sharing it with us!
I'm glad to have found this channel. I have a small "backyard" as we call it here in the U.S., but I much more love to call it "garden" as you all do! I have a lot of work to do to get my garden looking like those in your videos so I will be watching more and getting inspiration. Thank you!
How wonderful.
Does star jasmine grow in a similar manner to ivy?
I love your channel! 💝
I just love Ivy.
European ginger might make a nice evergreen substitute to ivy in some warmer regions.
Good morning Alexandra, what a beautiful neat garden. I am sure it took quite a bit of patience waiting for the hedges and conifers to grow to this stage! It was so worth the wait and just keep shaping and maintaining. One day I suddenly noticed all the different greens in a normal garden. You see it more in the summer season, where is spring the shades are very fresh and tender green yet at the season settles in suddenly you notice the colours. Green is one of my favourite colours, like flowers definitely more than one favourite!. Not too many ornaments in their garden, just sufficient to make it interesting. The trees I had such a desire to move, I have left for the time being. We decided, they took so many years to grow, it is better to just leave them, enjoy their summer shade and let them be. I am glad now we did not removed. Sometimes it is better to remove some branches than to removed the tree completely! Oh, I had a very pleasant surprise, I noticed some extra dahlia plants coming up, I did not plant tubers in the area, but you know what, they self-seeded and the plants are strong and healthy and the one in bloom now has the most delightful dark pink flower. It looks absolutely stunning. So there, we never realise what your garden can produce. What a treat….. Thank you for the lovely informative and encouraging talk, it is always a pleasure to listen to your videos. Do enjoy your Festive preparations, are you planning for a busy day, or just keep it all lovely, warm and good company. I mean just you and your husband? 🙂 take care