In today’s video I am delighted to be able to show you around Neil & Gail’s unique garden in Ickleford which is just outside Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
Neil is Richard’s older brother and has, up until now, had no interest whatsoever in gardening, even though they have a large and secluded garden.
But all that changed when the pandemic hit last year and they realised they were going to have to spend a lot of time at home in lockdown, and this made them realise what a wonderful asset they had in their garden.
The garden of their 100 year old house had remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, with two concrete patios they never used, plus an old rotting pergola and not much else.
As Neil told me, cottage gardens are just not for them. They didn’t want a high maintenance garden which would give them lots more work. They wanted a garden which would allow them to continue travelling, and so this meant designing a garden that was low maintenance.
As they have spent a lot of time visiting their oldest son who lives in Yokohama in Japan, they were drawn to the minimalistic garden style which the Japanese are such experts at. They decided that was the feel they wanted for their own garden.
They also travel a lot around Europe and are influenced by the flavour of the urban cities they love to visit, and so they thought ‘why not try and combine the two?’.
And so this is what they have done, and I think they have been extremely successful in doing it.
I hope you enjoy this look around their garden and I’d like to thank them both very much for allowing me to share it with you.
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🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶 The music in this video is called “Orient” by SefChol and can be found on the YouTube Audio Music Library.
Hi everyone, it's Jeanette here from Enthusiastic Gardener and I have
another lockdown garden project for you to see. It's so exciting because so many people
have discovered gardening because of the pandemic and because of being locked down in their houses,
people who hadn't even considered gardening before, and I think that is just amazing.
And today we have Richard's brother Neil, a non-gardener for 30 whatever years,
he has suddenly got into gardening and garden design. Neil has lived for the past 30 years in
a village called Ickleford and it's next to Hitchin which is in Hertfordshire.
They live in a beautiful 100 year old house and their garden has probably not changed
since the 1950s. It had all the 1950s concrete, it had an old rotting pergola. He retired five
years ago in 2016 but he said he had no interest in becoming a gardener because he's a writer
and he's married to Gail. They have two sons, one he's called Olaf who's 26 and they have another
son Christian who is 31 and he lives in Yokohama in Japan. So of course Neil and Gail spent a lot
of time in Japan which as you will see when we look at their garden has influenced their garden
design quite considerably. Thank you to Neil and to Gail for sending us these photos. I hope you
enjoy their garden. Another lockdown project successful. Let's go and have a look.
So I think that is just delightful. They have a beautiful wraparound patio with lots of little
seating areas so they can sit in the shade, they can sit in the sun. I'm sure he lies in his hammock
and thinks up all sorts of things to do with his writing. When the pandemic's over they can jet off,
come back, they're not faced with loads of deadheading, loads of pruning and all that
sort of thing because that's not what they wanted their garden for. They want their garden for
relaxing, peace and tranquility and I think that they have achieved that and I think it is absolutely
beautiful. Thank you Neil and Gail for showing us your garden. Thank you so much for watching
everyone. I hope you've enjoyed this video. I'm Jeanette, I'm The Enthusiastic Gardener.
Take care everyone. Bye.
