I love grasses and clipped topiary in a garden. They add sculpture and texture and when they are contrasted with floaty, fluffy flowers my heart sings.
I visited The Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park last week, where I saw some great examples.
Above are swathes of molinia grasses, which sweep across the lawn next to the rose garden and demand to be stroked and admired.
Here, they have created a formal garden with the clipped hedges, but softened it with the waves of soft perennials – from nepeta and nigella through to cranbe and phlox.
Each flower bed had a colour theme, and the off centre water feature and paths drew you into and through the space. There were benches within the hedging, where I perched to take it all in. Obelisks of highly scented roses and sweet peas added punctuation and their sweet smell stopped me in my tracks.
I loved this shady passage with grasses underplanting the trees. The round mounds of ophiopogon contrast brilliantly to the upright habit of the other grass, which is also lighter in colour.
You can find more garden photography and hints & tips on my insta feed.
I also share how nature gardening has helped me recover from burnout and functional neurological disorder, and poor mental health, in my memoir The Cactus Surgeon. Noticing the smaller details and stopping to really look at plants and nature has made me more positive, and a happier person.