The Island Bed

Island beds look totally different from different viewpoints - this is the general idea! My Island Bed looks at its best when viewed side-on, standing on the (hopefully green) house lawn. The plumes of Toe Toe used to fill the middle of the garden, before a rather nasty winter snow storm flattened the grass completely.

This is the current look of my Island Bed, in October 2008 (springtime). You'll see a few tulips, the Choisya in flower, and some other blossom. But alas - no pampas grass.

In the summer of 2005 I took what I thought was the ultimate, definitive photograph of the Island Bed. I should have known that my garden would have other ideas!

Shrubs in the Island Bed

Shrubs like the small Pittosporum in the top right of the garden grow slowly in the sandy soil here. The flaxes are still modest in size, and it's a case of playing spot-the-specimen-tree (a Dogwood, very beautiful, and slow to gain any height). The big evergreen Choisya shrub (Mexican Oraqnge Blossom) on the left is a survivor - in winter it overpowers the scale of the Island Bed, and I decide it is coming out. Hmm...

In the background you can see more flaxes in the house gardens, and the distant Stables. The Moosey Garden is a very flax-ful garden!