terra firma gardens

susan gallagher ba (hons) landscape architecture

We all know that the beauty of nature has a positive effect on our state of wellbeing. Some of our most memorable experiences have taken place when the natural world has stopped us short in our tracks - in the presence of a fabulous sunset, a stunning flower, the appearance of an unexpected view...the mesmerising sound of the ocean.

 Submerging oneself in the beauty of a garden can help us to unwind, restore our rattled nerves, and to relax a little more. Our aim is to bring a little of this magic into your daily lives. Your garden is carefully designed to be a place of inspiration, seclusion and relaxation, a place to share with friends and family, a special space to give you an all year round experience of beauty, colour inspiration and quietude.

'My spirit was lifted
and my soul nourished by my time in the garden.
It gave me a calm connection with all of life,
and an awareness that remains
with me now, long after leaving the garden'.
- Nancy Ross

'Bad gardens copy, good gardens create,
great gardens transcend.
What all great gardens have in common are their ability
to pull the sensitive viewer out of him or herself
and into the garden, so completely that the separate self-sense disappears entirely, and at least for a brief moment
one is ushered into a nondual and timeless
awareness. A great garden, in other words, is mystical
no matter what its actual content'.
- Ken Wilbur, Grace and Grit, 1991

'There is not a single colour hidden away in the chalice
of a flower, or the curve of a shell, to which some subtle sympathy with the very soul of things,
my nature does not answer'.
- Oscar Wilde