Man handling

Yes, we are getting there with the garden..... And as you can see from these pictures it takes a lot of men to manhandle these benches into place. Solid oak, and created by Tristan Sutton these are spectacular pieces of furniture. Which is why we all wear steel capped boots and viz vests. An unsuspecting foot in the wrong place would be a permanent fixture!

And it is getting there

And here the garden starts to take shape.......

The oak tree

The bones of any garden are the trees. They give relevance, position and gravitas to the garden and the buildings placed within the garden. And nothing is more English than our oak trees. This oak tree has added poignancy. The centrepiece of the garden, it stands over 5m high and was purchased through donations from the Combat Stress veterans to replace a much-loved elderly speciman that had to be felled at Tyrwhitt House. It still needs a little bit of tidying up to look its best, but at over 2.5 tonnes in weight it makes a wonderful sight.

Trees and more trees

Seen here is an Amelenchier with a backdrop of ivy screens which act as a living wall to the garden. This picture does not do these wonderful small trees justice; beautiful blossom and then a fantastic colour in autumn. We have 8 of these in the garden.

Stress

There will now probably be a flurry of posts as I try and update our blog with bite sized pieces as opposed to a huge ramble.

Firstly, the work is well and truly underway on the Combat Stress Garden. And what an absolute joy it is to work with professionals. I have always been extremely fortunate with whom I work; perhaps it is my very bad sense of humour, but I always work with great people who have very high standards and a very very low, black sense of humour. And Fi Boyle and the mob from Cirencester Civil Engineering are no exception. I cannot recommend them highly enough. You saw the picture of the site taken several weeks ago. This now resembles the beginnings of a garden. The site is so dry that the soil looks and acts like sand and everyone comes back looking as if they have been sprayed with earth - you end up eating and breathing it! In one area the ground is so hard (not on our site thank goodness) that they are having to soften the ground with water to be able to break it up.

So to the pictures.........

Pesky pheasants

The warm weather is supposedly here at last. Although over the last week it has gone cold again. Butterflies were everywhere particularly the singularly beautiful Brimstone. Always a sign of spring. The bees are out and about too covering plants such as Pulmonaria. This much maligned plant is a joy at this time of year. I particularly love ‘Opal’ which has the most exquisite flowers. They are almost luminescent. And it was a very useful plant in medieval times being used to treat bronchial problems; hence its ‘other’ name lungwort. Pulmonaria pairs particularly well with primroses, snowdrops, cyclamen and ferns as it loves part or full shade. In addition, the pheasants don’t seem to like it. I don’t know whether any of you have suffered the depredations of the two legged monster, but all my wallflowers have been decimated by the wretched bird! Although I tend to think, looking at my poor border, that there is more than one. Hopefully as spring goes into full swing the growth will prove too much for it and will outstrip its hungry beak!

Stunning silence

I know I know. There has been a complete and utter stunning silence from me, and it is not because I have gone quiet. Quite the opposite in fact. Life has been so so so busy that everytime I think of catching up with our blog, something else happens. I will update in the next few days.

But in a nutshell..... the work for the Combat Stress garden is really underway. And I have attached a picture of our site at Hampton Court. Terrifying!!!! We have to transform this huge space (spot the yellow flags marking our boundary corners) into the therapeutic garden you see shown further down this blog. And yes, to answer your question we are still fund raising.