The beauty of oak

Work on the Orchard Room has begun.  This will be a hand made, oak framed gazebo. erected in our small orchard area where we have planted a selection of fruit trees.

The oak comes from just down the road in the New Forest so it is as locally sourced as you could wish.  It is also, as a material, just so beautiful.  It also smells lovely too.

This structure is so important to the garden for it balances the design of the plot.  At one end of the main path that disects the garden diagonally, sits the stone seating area amongst the ornamental Parterre of box, stone and Lavender balls with Portuguese Laurel standards.  At the other, nestled in the orchard, is the Orchard Room itself.

Our original plan had been to install a Summer House but a gazebo allows you to be part of the garden itself, being open on all sides while still providing shelter.  We will place a bench and a couple of chairs within so that we might enjoy the orchard. 

Andrew, our local craftsman, has sourced and prepared the oak frame and thus far he has completed the basic structure.  Soon, the roof will be fitted with its cedar shingles. 

We will then plant beautiful and fragrent roses around the sturcture to soften it into the landscape. 

But even as an oak skeleton, immediately the space is transformed and the dynamic of the whole garden changed for the better.  An important landmark has been reached in the garden.