Modern Country Garden Combos: Dark Tulips And.....!

Today's Modern Country Garden Plant Combo is a bit of a strange one! It's Tulips And.... And? And???

Queen of the night tulips, black parrot tulips, pansies, foxgloves, and daffodils

Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Erica’, Silene dioica and Tulipa ‘Queen of Night’

Well, there's the nub of the problem! I tried to narrow it down, I really did. But dark tulips go so fantastically well with so many other plants, that I thought I'd use this as a bit of an encouragement to give them some Modern Country love in your very own garden. 

Whether planted with other tulip varieties...

...or with an altogether different but complementary plant, dark tulips can be your new Modern Country Garden bestie!

Tulips, especially voluptuous dark beauties such as Queen Of The Night and Black Parrot combine with so many other plants that it seemed foolish to narrow this post down to just one combination.

Which is your favourite?

Images via Benr Penreath, Nancy Ondra, Oscar De La Renta, unknown, unknown, Common Wealth Club, Wife Mother Gardener, Crocus, Black Swamp Girl

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I'm On Instagram!!...And Modern Country Front Garden Design

Yes, it's true! Two pieces of excitement here today....I've FINALLY joined Instagram AND I'm sharing a gorgeous Modern Country Front Garden!

You see, when I started first Modern Country Style, I had no idea that it would take off in the way it did. It was all I could do to keep on top of the blog, and then Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest came along (not to mention our five kiddiewinks behind the scenes!!)......and I just came to the conclusion that I couldn't do it all so it was better to do a few things well, rather than a lot of things badly! Roll on a few years, and things seem to have settled down, at least for a while, in terms of new social media to keep up with so I'm ready to launch forth!!! 

I'd LOVE you to join me over on Instagram. I'm there as @modern_country_style

And of course I'll still be over in all the usual places too!!

In the meantime, I'm LOVING this front garden design by Steven Kelvin, featuring the gorgeous combination we were talking about last time of lavender and topiary....

Take Care Until Next Time....

(And come and say hi on Instagram!)

Sarahxx

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Modern Country Garden Combos: Lavender And Topiary

As I shared in the last post, we're currently completely renovating our garden, so I'm all about outside spaces at the moment.  I thought we'd have a chat about favourite Modern Country Garden planting combos....

Let's start off with topiary and lavender.

Clockwise from top: this aged brick house is set off beautifully by dusky grey paint on the doors and frames, allowing the drainpipe and rendered base to fade into the overall scheme; box topiary in a zinc planter, box balls sit perfectly alongside a whole range of different architectural styles; Colours to try alongside this look include Dulux White, Farrow and Ball Cabbage White, Farrow and Ball Calluna, Little Greene French Grey, well thought-out details inside tie your interior and exterior together with aplomb..... 

Whether you prefer yew, or boxwood, or photinias or hollies.....topiary and lavender go together like clotted cream and jam in a freshly baked scone. Utter Modern Country Garden perfection!

Try Little Greene Juniper Ash, Zoffany Sung Mauve, Fired Earth Sea Lavender, Fired Earth Gentian Violet; a beautiful Modern Country planting scheme with four clipped box hedges enclosing swathes of lavender with box balls nestled within; you can never go wrong with lavender leading up to a front door; two standard topiary trees standing as sentinels either side of a door looks da bomb

My personal favourites for topiary are box balls, or low boxwood hedges...

....or standard lollipop trees (bay and privets work well)....

So how does this look tie in to Modern Country Garden perfection? 

Well, the lavender provides that perfect Country softness, while the topiary gives a perfect formal framework which gives a more contemporary feel.

I am absolutely loving planning our Modern Country garden - it gets me through the ridiculous amount of digging out that needs to be done. Who needs a gym when you have a garden reno?!

Consider a country-inspired feminine palette of Farrow and Ball Pelt, Dulux Linnet, Farrow and Ball Purbeck Stone, Farrow and Ball Cinder Rose; lavenders look gorgeous on paintwork alongside plenty of green planting, a circular pond wrapped with low box hedging is set off with a ribbon of lavender plants; topiary balls in old pots

Oh, and did I say I've just joined Instagram....come and follow me as I try to find my feet in this new Social MEdia playground.....

@modern_country_style

Take Care Until Next Time,

Sarahxx

Images via Belderbos, Fake IT Flowers, roden burgtuinen, Jinny Blom, Jinny Blom, , Landform, unknown, unknown, David Herbert, 

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Modern Country Gardens: A Cotswold Gem

Aaaah, welcome to another New Year!!

January is always a time for me to stop and reassess and see where I want to be focusing my energies in the coming year.

When we moved into our new home, we inherited the world's worst garden: full of concrete, battered sheds and ugly raised beds. It was enough to make me feel as though my world had come to a standstill.

Since then, we've been doing a huge amount of work behind the scenes and we're making progress, albeit slowly. What I need, in this January time of reflecting,  is a lovely bit of inspiration to remind me about where I want to be heading....

And I'd say this gorgeous Modern Country Garden just about fits the bill...

Nestled in the Cotswolds, not a million miles from where we live, this beautiful space is jam-packed full of beautiful roses...

...wherever you look! 

It's perfected the look of gentle chaos but, if you know anything about gardening, then you'll realise that it takes a LOT of work to appear this relaxed!

Gorgeous places to sit and enjoy the view are tucked away in every nook...

So, what shall we take away from this stunning garden? I love the carefully curated colour scheme: all soft pinks and purples and mid-greens.

And it'll come as no surprise that I'm a massive fan of this formal informality. A perfect mix of tumbling Country exuberance, restrained by its Modern framework....

And now to crack on with my very own Modern Country Garden in the making!

Images via Strutt and Parker

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