Trees to me appear to be one of the unsung heroes of gardening. They create a sense of time, place and history within the landscape. Having a house perched on a bare piece of ground creates a feeling of exposure, rawness and incompleteness. Place a largish tree nearby and suddenly the house belongs. Trees provide history, a course of events. They create a sense of belonging in the landscape. At the same time there is nothing worse than a tree that is misplanted; one that does not belong. We are all guilty of doing this. Finding a plant in a nursery that we love the look of, but failing to read the label. Do we really want a 60' giant in our small back garden - however good it looks when it is 6' high! I love eucalyptus trees (my time in Australia converted me to them) but they are singly inappropriate in most of our gardens. Thuggish root systems searching out all water sources they tend to drop their branches whenever they feel like it and grow at the rate of knots. Not only that they are highly inflammable. The Blue Mountains in Australia get their name from the haze that lies across them; bluish in colour it is created by the oils released from the eucalyptus trees and is highly inflammable - not a good tree to plant alongside houses with chimneys. In addition they do absolutely nothing for our wildlife. However, if you do plant one (and I have a very small one in my garden) you can keep it short with pruning and it can provide endless foliage for indoor flower arranging.
About Me
- Dorinda Wolfe Murray
- My working background is diverse but my love of the countryside started as a child. My grandfather was the naturalist and bird artist Fishhawk; he instilled in my father and myself an ability to observe and appreciate the landscape. This appreciation has become a fascination with the effect our environment has on our physical and mental wellbeing. When I started working with one of the UK’s leading traumatic brain injury case managers I experienced first-hand the difference that constructive, effective care could have on the brain's ability to heal. Whilst working here I formed a gardening company which in 2007 and 2008 was awarded Silver Medals at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Since then my work, through Independent Gardening Ltd, has grown to encompass the design and build of therapeutic gardens. I also advise charities and clients how to create gardens for those with neural disabilities such as PTSD, depression, autism, cerebral palsy. In 2010 I organized the Combat Stress Therapeutic Show Garden highlighting the effects of PTSD and won a Silver Medal. The result of this work has culminated in the formation, with OT Gillian Taylor of the FirstLight Trust charity.
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