Bene's Profile

We moved from high in the hills of Scotland to an English 1/2 acre garden with flower borders, and roses climbing through fruit trees, and now we've moved again to a garden which is half patio+gravel with narrow beds inside a wall, and half grass [in two joining discs] with flower beds around, between the house and the lane.
The soil is chalky-clay which is wonderful for growing things with strong roots - the fine-rooted plants clearly cannot cope. roses aren't too happy either, surprisingly, although they grow and flower well, there is awful black spot...
Our major problem is wind. the garden has a 7'6 wall and a fence, and the house on one side - but the wind whooshes over the wall, hits the house wall and lays everything flat! we couldn't make out why all the remaining leaves of plants were pointing away from the house.. after a few weeks we understood!
So we've put in a Magnolia Grandiflora 'Exmouth' on the outside of the wall, and a Gingko Biloba, a Parrotia Persica, with Amelanchier Canadensis on the front edge of the garden to shield the lawn..
At first sight the small size looked quite limiting, and we are having to think smaller in choosing plants. However, we plan to take out some of the more ordinary shrubs this autumn, and add more imaginative groupings - if we can do that!
We have just been hugely inspired by Stockton Bury gardens, with all the lovely things growing there...
We've added Alstroemerias, Penstemons, Gaura, geraniums, and are about to plant some exciting foliage [herbaceous] plants.
Delighted to hear from anyone who has experience of small gardens, and imaginative plants.