A Unique Garden Combination Of Japanese & Urban European Cities

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.

If you’d like to join my Facebook page, also called The Enthusiastic Gardener, you can find it by clicking this link:

https://www.facebook.com/The-Enthusiastic-Gardener-104622541169305/

I am also on Instagram @the_enthusiastic_gardener

Have fun in your gardens!

Janette, The Enthusiastic Gardener

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The music in this video is called “Orient” by SefChol and can be found on the YouTube Audio Music Library.