Our garden recently won second place in the Small Private Squares category of the London Garden Squares Competition. We were competing against thirty other gardens with the top three receiving gold medal status according to RHS guidelines. We will soon be adding the silver plaque to the garden shed doors to join the others from previous years.
The trees were examined by our tree surgeon last month and he has identified a large number that need trimming. On the south side of the square the Plane trees have spread closer than desired to house numbers 10-12 and they will be pruned back, as will the Lime trees on the west side. We had budgeted £3500 for tree surgery this year but the extra work identified will likely cause us to exceed that amount and tree expenditure will probably be closer to £5000 in 2014. The extra growth is the result of ideal growing conditions in the past 12 months – a warm wet winter and a hot summer.
Autumn is the time of year when the gardeners plan the changes they want to make so that the garden will look even better next summer. They have proposed a couple of ideas that look promising:
- Install an arch of purple-flowering hazel along the short path that connects the south gate with the garden proper. This should enhance the sense of arrival into the garden while also providing a seasonal floral display.
- Add a bark path up the bank and through the plants in the northwest corner. Additional planting will be required both to replace a couple of shrubs lost in the past year and to define the path route. The path will add a feature of interest to a somewhat forgotten corner.
We have also scheduled some maintenance work to the gardeners’ shed and the paved area near the yew hedge. Finally we plan to replace the temporary bird bath that sits on the ground in the wildlife area near the bird feeder with a stone one on a stand.
If you have any comments or questions please contact a committee member or email.
With kind regards,
Montpelier Square Garden Committee
Jane Bradbury
Neil Carthy
Avril Cox
Nicholas Davie-Thornhill
Chris Didizian
Ali Malek
Janet Marshall (Garden Chairman)
Costas Michaelides
Daniel Quirici (Chairman)