It was a lifting and pruning blow-out here in the garden this last weekend. You’d have thought the end was near, but it was the coming of the biannual scourge of voters everywhere which spurred me to get ‘er done: le civic duty du jury. Glad that’s dealt with, now back to the garden… I hope!

In this case, I had a six hour drive home, and my brain can cover a lot of ground in 6 hours!  It’s a great location, he’s got nice furnishings, his place is sparse but well appointed, he’s obviously not one who chucks perfectly good, working appliances because retailers tell him he needs the new model…   But, if it were me, I’d hang gauze curtains on that balcony and sleep out there all summer!

When I woke up this morning, I realized, that while before I’d always thought, “Gosh, I wish I could render landscapes, in watercolor, the way Alan Titchmarsh does” (on the old Ground Force series), now I can.  I exploded out of bed. 

First to render the balcony as it is:

A touch of color (cobalt blue, squared, tapered planter); a perennial beauty and some verticality (Fortnight Lily (Dietes vegeta); some Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) to soften things, catch the breeze and tie in the lovely burgundy sofa; a squared terra cotta 3-level fountain for those sounds you can’t ever live without once you’ve had a fountain, and some repetition for a harmonious, no care container meadow effect.

Shazzam! A cheap, easy, movable planting that requires minimal maintenance at most, and as little water.  Well, now you know what I’d do, if it were me—but it’s not.

The balcony is rendered from memory, and the sofa perspective is off, but you get the idea.  You’ll have to imagine the curtains, pulled back during the day.  Heck, it’s my first Titchmarsh episode.  I don’t know about Mr. Titchmarsh, but I’d be having a lot less fun without Photoshop!

In this case, I had a six hour drive home, and my brain can cover a lot of ground in 6 hours! It’s a great location, he’s got nice furnishings, his place is sparse but well appointed, he’s obviously not one who chucks perfectly good, working appliances because retailers tell him he needs the new model… But, if it were me, I’d hang gauze curtains on that balcony and sleep out there all summer!

When I woke up this morning, I realized, that while before I’d always thought, “Gosh, I wish I could render landscapes, in watercolor, the way Alan Titchmarsh does” (on the old Ground Force series), now I can. I exploded out of bed.

First to render the balcony as it is:

A touch of color (cobalt blue, squared, tapered planter); a perennial beauty and some verticality (Fortnight Lily (Dietes vegeta); some Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) to soften things, catch the breeze and tie in the lovely burgundy sofa; a squared terra cotta 3-level fountain for those sounds you can’t ever live without once you’ve had a fountain, and some repetition for a harmonious, no care container meadow effect.

Shazzam! A cheap, easy, movable planting that requires minimal maintenance at most, and as little water. Well, now you know what I’d do, if it were me—but it’s not.

The balcony is rendered from memory, and the sofa perspective is off, but you get the idea. You’ll have to imagine the curtains, pulled back during the day. Heck, it’s my first Titchmarsh episode. I don’t know about Mr. Titchmarsh, but I’d be having a lot less fun without Photoshop!

Cathy Rogers and Jason Gibb had successful careers in television production in Los Angeles, with homes both in the U.S. and their native England. Finding themselves restless, they wanted some physical work that would challenge them and produce something of which they could be proud. After some searching around, they decided that moving to Italy and making organic olive oil would be a grand idea. Oh yes, they added a brand new baby into the mix as well.
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