AndAllenGarden

A garden means all things to all people. For me, a garden is about satisfaction – visually interesting, encouraging wildlife, a place to relax , work and get your hands dirty. A place to share with friends and family.

A garden is a very personal space. Part of that personalization is the level of investment that goes into its creation and maintenance.Think of your garden as a balance sheet with incomes and outgoings . All the pleasure you get from a garden adds to the income – cost and time are the major outgoings. Working the garden is a positive, upto a point – beyond the optimum time investment it becomes a chore – a negative. This aspect needs to be considered during the design phase of a garden.

During the design of Andallen I was fortunate in that I had a wonderful sounding board for ideas – CP, the most important person in my life, made sure that my ambition for this garden stayed in line with my capability – future proofing the design by reminding me that at some stage his garden was going to be maintained by an old man!

After months of discussion we ended up with a design with 4 elements. A herbaceous perennial bed, a woodland walk, a ”japanese stylistic” element with all 3 pulled together by a purpose built crevice garden. With the exception of the woodland walk, we had created versions of all these elements before so we were building on our personal experiences, supplementing this with research about gardening in Georgia clay.

At the creation of the high level schematic design we were happy – would we feel the same way when installation started?

It could be said that the Andallen Garden has been 60 years in the making. A long time considering that currently, it is nothing more than a few ideas and a focus on our favorite “garden concepts.” These have been formulated into a rough plan, which will be refined as development and installation progresses.

Yes, at present, it is nothing more than a patch of grass that was laid to allow a new house to be sold. There are a couple of beds that have been planted, with little thought, “with what was available a few days before the July 4th holiday,” (not my words — but those of the selling agent). No design, no sense of harmony, just plants in the ground — further insulted by being swamped in pine straw. However, these plants will find a place — just not where they are at present!

This is the story of how Andallen was conceived and how it will come to life. a story told in real time with respect for the historical contributions that will shape its evolution. Many thanks to Girl on the Hudson, who graciously gave up to some of per precious time to give us the skills to share this adventure.