How to build your own dream garden and dream home

Today I wanted to share some tips on how to achieve some loveliness with your house and garden - through a house that is very close to my heart, and which is gorgeous to boot.
It's the house of my lovely talented and artistic neighbour.
 She is thinking of moving so if you are bowled over, you could actually buy this piece of lovely-ness - here:  link.

Topiary is a fantastic way of adding evergreen structure to a garden. You may think that you won't be able to or can't get the budget together for an amazing garden like this,but take heart.I have seen this lovely place develop over the years- and both the house and the garden have been through many transformations till they reached this fairytale look.
The knot garden was there ten years ago, but was in it's early stages as it had just been planted.

With no budget to speak of, you can plant your own -free- box parterre- by taking box cuttings, either from a friend who is trimming their box plants, or by going into the forest and taking some cuttings- box is a tree that grows in the wild in forests.Box cuttings taken in late summer or early autumn will root quickly and be ready for planting out the following spring.

Here are some more tips on how to do this courtesy of the BBC Gardening website- here is the tutorial.
Once you have potted up your cuttings with some root powder, keep the soil moist and in the shade for a year or so, and you will have your plants ready to start your own box parterre .

                                                            picture credit : gapphotos.com
 If you want to create your own topiary like box balls and such, there are lots of sites with advice as well- here is a link to one of them right here.
Here is the main picture of the house with the box parterre in situ.

( The house is now for sale -by the way- amongst other things -on www.zoopla.co.uk with the link to the details here ) .

If you think of garden design, and you want to go the classic English country garden route ( as my neighbour did here )  you really want to think about introducing symmetry.
That starts with the entry to the house and garden if you can- like here at the fence.
Note the two hurricane lamps in the distance that draw the eye, throught the rose- arch.
You need to look at where the eye falls on from any angle of your garden and then see if you can create a symmetrical vignette.

Here some more symmetry- wood storage.Note the two urns to the left and right.

The symmetry returns in the adorable kitchen garden as well.

Such a lovely area and a must-have  if you want to go for that country house look!

These raised beds are a really interesting feature but are super simple to make- you just need 4 planks of wood and some bits for the corner- but it gives a good structure to the garden- as kitchen gardens can look very messy and untidy- as long as you keep the symmetry.

Here is a long view of the herbaceous border with garden obelisks.

Obelisks make striking focal points in gardens, and again, you can do this with a very limited budget- there are loads of websites with instructions on how to make your own.

In fact, here is a link to a tutorial right here .
 So there are a lot of things you can do yourself with time and effort.Rome was not built in a day!
And this lovely garden and house was lovingly created over quite a few years, adding this, and that, and eventuallly becoing a dream home.
I hope this has given you some inspiration and I wish my neighbour all the luck and succes in the world to
find a new project to build another dream home for herself as I am sure she will.
Have a fabulous rest of the week!!
XOXO
Bea