BASELINES

What is the heart of a landscape we find ourselves in? 

I've been looking out at the main garden area of our new farm wondering what to do with it. It has a lovely lawn and existing border surrounded by hedging. Before moving I'd been thinking of removing the lawn to allow for a larger complex planting design. 

There are a few things stopping me from doing this. Part of me feels guilty making any changes to this area whatsoever, although I will do them sensitively, keeping as much as I can of what is here. I also don't know what the garden contains yet, so although I'm keen to get started, in this case waiting until spring makes some sense to see what plants, flowers and colours appear. Especially of high impact / low movability trees and shrubs.

The main cause of designers block however is the view, something I didn't have to factor into our Clapham garden. It's a wonderful scene of distant woods and hills covered in the traditional Yorkshire fields with their random grids of dry stone …