(or to give it its full name: 30th birthday pergolation walkway of dreams).
Although we said we’d stop working in the garden after finishing the first half of the dry stone wall, we couldn’t resist building something else. We had a good excuse to spend more money on the garden as it was my 30th birthday in November (oops). We thought that it would be a lovely idea to build a pergola walkway that would lead to the walled garden; once again I had my trusty handyman Luke to help realise this grand plan..! We knew that we eventually wanted to train climbing plants up and across the pergola, in order to create a canopy effect. We were inspired to do this after watching the ‘Great British Gardening Revival: Roses, Climbers & Creepers’ (not available on iPlayer anymore unfortunately) – there was a gorgeous laburnum and wisteria climbing up the pergola on this episode!
We spent several train journeys considering the length/type of wood and materials we would need (thanks again for Luke’s rational and mathematical brain here). On my birthday weekend we started work and managed to finish it in one day! We are debating what to plant up it in 2018 – I am thinking it would be great to plant an evergreen clematis like ‘apple blossom’ (armandii); this is an evergreen climber that would give the pergola structure and colour all year – I hate the idea of everything in the garden dying back in winter.
So looking forward to planting this up in Spring 2018!
Guy this is adorable!
There’s an amazing pergola on Peckham Rye, you should check it out for planting inspo- the wisteria has even gone up into some neighbouring trees. Also on the roof of Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank- Jasmine and Honeysuckle so it smells delicious! X
Thanks for this Jemima!! I actually used to jog around that park when we lived there – I remember that central section! You must subscribe and then you can follow the pergola planting journey..!