Front Doors And Lavender Paths = YUMMY!

If there's one Modern Country look that never seems to date, never seems tired, never gets old, it's this: banks of lavender leading up to a gorgeously muted front door.

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

Lavender-lined paths are seen the world over but especially here in the rolling Cotswolds; stopping to sweep my hand past swathes of lavender is one of life's great pleasures.

The scene is set to perfection when combined with other greenery, whether that's a climber such as hydrangea petiolaris scaling the stone walls...

...or simply a front door flanked by two lollipop sentinels...

...or even, if you have the space, lavender plants interspersed with other topiary...

Yes, whether you have an old country pile...

...a lovely new-build...

...a gorgeous Georgian home like me....

...this is one look that most definitely isn't going anywhere.

BUT, ever the realist, what if you don't have oodles of front garden space to trace out yards of lavender loveliness?? What's a girl to do if she really, really, reeeeaaalllly wants this look?

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..... 

Come back next time, my sweets, and I'll let you into a few of my secrets...

Until then, take extra care of yourselves,

Sarahxx

Images via here 

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Modern Country Garden Designer: Jinny Blom

I've got a bit of a fangirl double whammy for you here...

Two words:

Jinny Blom

Have you heard of Jinny? She's a Garden Designer Extraordinaire

and I'm a little bit in love with her gardens.

Jinny Blom designed this gorgeous garden which is based in Gloucestershire. The home is called Temple Guiting and is based in the heart of the Cotswolds.

These walls were built from Jinny Blom's plans. haven't they done a completely fantastic job at blending new with old? 

Pleached hornbeams like the ones below are such a fantastic way of providing privacy but still letting through plenty of light. Look at all that sunshine? Wishing we had a bit more of that right now!!

This is just classic Modern Country gardening at its best. Gorgeous soft planting combined with firm contemporary structure. It's utterly delicious.

Oh Jinny, Jinny, Jinny. If only you had a book we could devour; something we could learn from, to be guided by your experience, in order to make little pieces of heaven in our own back gardens...

But wait? What's this I see before me....

Jinny Blom HAS written a book!

And a full review is coming your way very soon indeed....

Hold onto your seats, my sweet peas, it's a beauty.

Take Care Until Next Time,

Sarahx

Images via Jinny Blom

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Small Garden With A Circular Lawn!

I have a real thing in gardens about circle-shaped lawns. Will you just look at the shape of that lawn.... I hesitate to use the word sexy for what is basically a patch of grass but feast your eyes on those lush curves, baby....

{You want more loveliness like this? Yes! I've FINALLY joined Instagram! If you haven't come to say 

hello to me (I'm Modern_Country_Style) 

I'd LOVE to see you there!}

This circle-shape works especially well on grass in smaller town gardens, where there are very often the harsh straight lines of other nearby houses to content with. Drawing your eye with soft, flowing lines does so much for reducing the impact of the rat-race going on all around you.

Bring a slice of Country into Modern living?

Yup, that's Modern Country Gardens for you!!

;-)

Take Care Till Next Time,

Sarahxx

Image via GAP

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Alliums And Lavender: Modern Country Garden Companions

I've just come back from the perfect late winter's walk - crisp but with more than a hint of Spring in the air! - and I was, again, reminded how completely scrumptiously exciting this time of year is garden-wise. What better opportunity could there be to share another of my favourite Modern Country Garden planting companions. And today's star turn is the Megan Markle and Prince Harry of any Modern Country Garden: alliums and lavender. 

The glamorous, firecracker nature of the aliums sets off the soft, country timlessness of the lavender.

Can you see that aliums show off lavender so completely perfectly: in colour, in form and in height: just feast your eyes on these fabulous examples!

I'm particularly jiggly this year because we've come to the end of the back-breaking digging out of our own garden. Can you feel my relief? I hope it's almost tangible through your screen! It's been unbelievably hard work - hundreds of years of concrete and large stones - and we've done it ourselves in order to save money to put into a new kitchen!

Which means it's VERY nearly time to bring in the top soil, bring in the grass and then...to get planting!! 

Can I get a MASSIVE Hallelujah, please?

{Cue angels singing}

I've visualised our beautiful space outside for so long that, in my head, it's become a place to escape to already in my head! I can almost smell the lavender wafting on the balmy evening breeze...

beautiful things make me happy

I think it's time to put what's in my head out into the real world!

And will this pefect Modern Country Garden partnership of aliums and lavender feature in our new garden? 

You betcha!

Take care until next time,

Sarahx

Images via Belderbos, skwellsphoto, Claire Potter Designs, Beautiful Things Make me Happy, raddlesiddeley, arne maynard, unknown

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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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