The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Beauty hides the blemishes
An stoppable smile spreads across my face. My brain is being flooded with dopamine as I am greeted with the sight.
I am feeling blessed this morning. I wander out to my driveway and am greeted with the sun shining, clear blue skies and birds chirping.
The gentle, warm breeze makes it feel like spring has finally arrived.
Gorse’s (Ulex europaeus) luminous yellow is offset by the pop of the regal purple of the Aubretia deltoides growing in the gravel atop the stone wall.
I decide against getting in the car just yet. I’m early and have a bit of a time – so let’s make the most of this moment.
The morning commute can hang on 10 minutes.
I end up slowly strolling through the front, then the back garden. I gaze, touch and smell the plants, shrubs and trees.
MY GARDEN
Something I am always asked is: “What is your garden like, Scott?”
If I’m not asked, then my wife is.
It’s either that or a comment about how our garden must be great.
I often joke that gardening professionally all day then going home to do more is a non-starter.
It is like the mechanic that drives a banger. The chef who comes home and makes beans on toast.
The truth, though, somewhere in between.
My garden brings me so much joy and pleasure. It brings the whole family pleasure.
It does not look exactly how I would like.
It does, though, have many brilliant features and plants that thrill me year-round.
A garden is a personal place. Your idea of a perfect garden would likely be very different to mine.
Some love an informal is cottage garden style with plants spilling everywhere.
Some love a neat and tidy garden with a crisp lawn and spotlessly clean borders. Some love rockeries.
Maybe it’s ponds. It could be exotic with many specimen plants put out for summer.
It may even be some low maintenance decking for sitting on and a wee area for a summer barbecue.
Whatever you have has to work for you and your lifestyle. I find my garden fits very well with mine.
It’s not high maintenance, which I simply do not have time for.
It does need the wee patch of grass cut so we have a lovely area to lounge on in warm weather.
It does need the weeds pulled out of some of the borders and gravel areas.
I have plenty pots and window boxes to add in some dazzling summer annuals or spring bulbs.
I have tidying and pottering to do year-round. In autumn, once the birds have finished nesting, I have a couple of mixed hedges which also need trimmed.
A variety of everything but not too much. That is ideal for me. Enough to serve an important purpose to nature and keep me interested.
HEAVENLY LANDSCAPE
What I am truly blessed with is location. I am smack-bang-in-the-middleof-nowhere countryside.
That is my idea of heaven. I am no town or city dweller.
My garden is surrounded by fields as far as the eye can see. A patchwork quilt of landscape embraces me when I look outside.
Ploughed but unsown fields of brown, growing wheat fields of green and vibrant sunshine yellow of rapeseed greet me.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it, as they say. My garden at home feels like it truly blends with the landscape beyond.
In doing this it makes you feel like the entire countryside is a part of your garden.
It is an overwhelming sensation, to be honest.
You feel tiny in the world and free to submit to Mother Nature’s all-encompassing power.
If you are not surrounded by greenery on all sides, fear not. Your garden, no matter how big or small, can be your private oasis.
Borrowing the landscape beyond is just as important as blocking out the unwanted beyond.
That ugly overhead power line, or billboard, or neighbours gazing in windows can all be hidden.
Remove the unwanted with clever placement of appropriately-sized trees or shrubs.
Canopy theory helps to create a cohesive and allencompassing garden. This involves using different heights in your garden like you would see in nature.
Pick a select few trees and shrubs to create height and block unwanted views.
Next, pick more shrubs smaller than the first lot.
Then herbaceous plants or specimens in pots and pieces of garden furniture or artworks.
Lastly, pick low-growing plants to cover ground between hard landscaping like paths and low walls.
Overall you will end up with a symphony of heights, shapes, colours and textures that will envelop you.
Buckie or Bucksburn, Cults or Cullen, it won’t matter. It works.
Take care and happy gardening.