Garden Design in Retro

At the start there was a house with a pool in the centre of a 700-metre plot spread over three levels of ancient terrace. There was no fixed plan for the garden but there were requirements. It had to be easy to maintain without too much concrete. And it had to look informal. No circular flower beds and a bandstand. 

Looking back, what were the influences?  'The two gardening experiences I had had in my life until I came to Spain could have been influential. The first was 'Dig for Victory' in the Second World War when as 10-year old I 'helped' my uncle in his allotment. Not much help to him at the time, I did learn some fundamentals - about growing vegetables! Then with a recovered wilderness at a house in London I set to with a book called Propagation to turn the space into a lawn and borders with shrubs, flowers and vegetables. Ending up with a shed, sunflowers and maize as well. Propagation of some kind!

              Here in Alicante province other factors came into play to help with a garden, simple in style and economical in expense and in the time needed in its care. In retrospect, I am sure that the most important influence was the fact that we had lived in Japan, my wife and I. It is a heavily built-up, mountainous country with not enough building land for a population of over 100 million people.  Amongst the clutter, areas of peacefulness suddenly appear. They are usually small and simple, sand and stone, with sometimes no plants at all. These places break the rush of things around them; they bring STILLNESS for a second as you pass. And I lived in Japan for 4 years. 

A swimming pool can have the same effect of stillness - when not in use!

But mainly it is not water but gravel that creates the stillness in my garden.