Westward view from our attic window over our back garden to the Rosendale Allotments on Knight’s Hill.
Parts of our immediate neighbours’ gardens can be seen here too. Rosendale allotments are said to be the most extensive in London. There are over 450 plots which people from all around the area use for growing vegetables, fruit and cut flowers. It’s a hilly site, and all supplies have to be brought by hand to the plots, including water – hard work!
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NOTE ON THE GARDEN
The garden was very plain and bare when we arrived in 1985. We have been developing the design gradually since then, but not from a single pre-planned conception. Eventually we developed the overall shape, with a ‘winding river’ effect made by the lawns and path. The shapes of the rockeries, planting and other features are based on the way a small stream winds between ‘interlocking spurs’ in hilly terrain. We did all the planting, and I built many of the features. For further history of our garden, see set description for ‘OUR BACK GARDEN’
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GARDEN DETAILS
(To see garden details better, click on the three dots symbol (●●● meaning ‘more’) at bottom right of black part of screen > Choose ‘View all sizes’ > Choose any size larger than the one in black font. Press back button to return. See also notes on picture. However, notes are not retained in downloaded versions of Flickr images.)
Features
– Arbour – R foreground, only slat-roof visible, assembled from flat-pack.
– Garden railway – L foreground, on Water Rockery, G-scale 45mm gauge.
– Path – of reclaimed York stone laid in ‘crazy’ style by local landscaper, late Mr. Rogers, to our own winding design, shortly after we arrived in 1985. The upper branches are later (autumn 2007) realignments and additions by Acer Landscapes, part our scheme to give step-free access from the house to the Upper Terrace in spite of the garden gradient.
– Temple of Juno garden shed – centre L, with shingled roof and white columns supporting portico, built by me in sections out of reclaimed timber ("Rosen Wanted") at a previous house, brought here and extended with portico. I made the columns made from a flag pole. Steve Cruse (joiner) hung the doors (architectural salvage) and put on the cladding.
– Upper Rockery (Railway Rockery) – lower centre, planted with alpines, dwarf shrubs and trees including conifers, also the base for the Upper Loop of Garden Railway. Rockery built myself of various kinds of stone in simulated geological structure (not visible here).
– Valrosa Cabin workshop – centre background, brown, fully insulated, completed earlier in the year by Acer Landscapes.
– Water Rockery – centre L, with pumped water course, upper pools, cascades, and lower loop of garden railway, though only the railway is visible here. Almost all built myself.
Plants
– Buxus sempervirens – jelly-mould box-hedge, centre L foreground.
– Chamaecyparis, columnar, not sure what species or form – in neighbour’s garden to L, along the fence.
– Chamaecyparis – probably C. lawsoniana, Lawson’s cypress, ‘Stewartii’ or ‘Westermannii’ – neighbours’ tall bright conifer, R centre.
– Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Squarrosa’ – a Sawara cypress, centre L immediately in front of Temple of Juno portico.
– Clematis armandii – evergreen climber on fence behind arbour, lower R. Looks reddish because this is colour of new spring shoots.
– Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica – growing over old apple tree stumps. centre L foreground.
– Cotoneaster frigidus – centre L in front of Temple of Juno.
– Escallonia macrantha – two shrubs shaped into an arch over side path, L side only visible here, centre R.
– Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’ – pillar juniper, centre R.
– Lonicera japonica – Japanese honeysuckle, evergreen, closest part of R hedge.
– Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ – lower centre R, between path and arbour.
– Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’ – golden marjoram, at front of Upper Rockery along the path, lower centre.
– Phormium tenax probably ‘Rainbow Queen’ – New Zealand flax, the spiky plant just R of centre foreground.
– Picea glauca var. albertiana ‘Conica’ – dwarf white spruce, two of them, one behind the other, lower centre by path.
– Picea glauca var. albertiana ‘Conica’ – dwarf white spruce, two trees one behind the other, lower centre on Upper Rockery.
– Picea mariana ‘Nana’ – dwarf black spruce, lower centre by path.
– Platycladus orientalis ‘Beverleyensis’ – (formerly Thuja orientalis) golden form of Eastern Thuja, in shade, L foreground.
– Prunus domesticus (presumably) – the neighbours’ plum tree, upper centre L, to L of Valrosa Cabin.
– Pyracantha, probably P. x watereri – in neighbours’ garden, growing against fence, lower R.
– Pyrus probably P. communis – common pear tree, in neighbours’ garden, top L.
– Quercus – probably Q. robur L., pedunculate oak, growing along fence behind a neighbouring garden, top R.
– Taxus baccata – yew, golden fastigiate form, probably ‘Standishii’ – front L in neighbour’s garden.
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LOCATION DETAILS
Country: Great Britain: England
City: London
London Borough: Lambeth
District: West Dulwich, SE21
Altitude: 40m
Aspect: view is approx westward, and R side of garden catches most sun
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Photo
© Darkroom Daze Creative Commons.
If you would like to use or refer to this image, please link or attribute.
ID: CIMG0554 – Version 2
