I've a bit of a thing for hares, what with our concrete versions in the garden and photos of this tambourine beating hare at Chatsworth, so when I spotted these Boxing Hares by Sue Lamb at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex on my recent visit, it was clear I was going to snap these.
These are bronze resin and cost a little bit more than our concrete ones, but wouldn't they be great, and wouldn't they give the foxes a bit of a shock.
It was a couple of weeks ago now on another of those balmy days that I spent some time wandering around the RHS' garden Hyde Hall in Essex. In the new vegetable garden I discovered a small patch of vibrantly colourful dahlias, which I may just have walked around (and around) to make sure I'd seen them all. But when they looked like this, who could blame me?
Dahlias are one of those flowers that have had a bit of a bad press, but looking at them closely they are exquisite. They have an almost 'mandala-like' quality to them, don't you think?
Having a patch of them about twice the size of a standard sized rug definitely maximised their impact, and goes to show you don't need a lot of space at all.
These ones with the 'curled' petals reminded me that my dad used to grow these in our first house (well the first house I lived in) and I remember we used to get into trouble if our balls got in with the dahlias. I've still no idea how that happened...
I imagine though the ones that dad grew would be pinker, like the one above, rather than any other colour. I don't know for sure, but it's likely to be an educated guess.
I've no idea why dahlias have been out of favour, but I'm glad they seem to be enjoying a reprieve. I used to have some of the burgundy Bishop of Llandaff, but somewhere along the way the tubers most likely rotted.
I'm thinking perhaps I should try again, but with something more colourful.
Now you're not going to believe this. I almost didn't. And before I tell you, we'd already decided on our gabion journey when I saw this garden, but seeing it made me smile and confirm it had to be done.
If you've no idea what I'm talking about then while I might claim this garden as my own, I'm not the Robinson it's named after. The Robinsons were the first owners of Hyde Hall and this, and the Woodland garden were the first gardens here. In 2006 the Robinson garden was redeveloped to "create a contemporary garden with three distinct boggy areas."
So now I've set the scene, would you believe it looked like this:
NEATLY STACKED GABION BASKETS IN THE ROBINSONS GARDEN
I know, I'm seeing gabion baskets everywhere now!
AN ENTICING SPACE
Although this is clearly on a much larger scale than ours!
It was useful though to prove to MOH it can be done, and can look fantastic. Being the thorough sort though we spent probably far too long looking at how these were put together. I must admit to loving the order of the neatly stacked inners, but I'm still pleased we opted for the more purse-friendly reclaimed look.
IT'S EVEN GOT A CURVE
It was here though that I really appreciated the helicoils and was glad I'd over ordered and we could add them to the joins and corners on ours.
HELICOILS SOFTENING THE SHARP EDGES
AND CURVES, MEAN TRIANGLE SHAPED SPACES. AND THESE ARE PARTICULARLY GOOD!
But this garden wasn't just about the gabions, stones and helicoils. The plants had my name all over them too.
ALLIUM SEED HEADS
I need more alliums in my garden - must remember that when the bulb catalogues start arriving! But I have plenty of these hart's tongues ferns though - they grow in the old stair well alongside our conservatory. Every year or so I scrape a load off the wall and plant into a pot and let them grow on. That's how I had enough plants to fill our gabion baskets that we used as planters. It drives MOH crazy I'm sure, but this summer for the first time ever he saw why it was useful to have some plants that grow in our garden mature enough to be useful.
HART'S TONGUE FERN
The astrantia below should also be on my plant list. I've lusted after it for a while, in fact since I first saw them at Bosvigo in Cornwall in 2014.
GORGEOUSLY DELICATE ASTRANTIAS
The plants were totally at home with the gabion retaining wall, and happily clambering up them.
PLANTS WERE HAPPILY CLAMBERING OVER THE GABION WALL
It's an impressive space, and one that helped us have the confidence to really push forward with ours.
And you never know, maybe the future is gabion basket shaped!
I'm still not sure if I'm spotting more gabion baskets because I'm tuned into them, or if there's more around...
