I have about 10 years worth of past issues of Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated and many more magazines that while watching tv at night I like to flip through. I always find something interesting that I flag for follow up or an inspiring garden I forgot about.

Last night I was reading a Garden Design from Jan/Feb 2008 and came across an article on Daniel Ost’s personal garden in Belgium. Daniel Ost is known as an extreme floral artist and has done an amazing job crossing over into garden design with a garden that is a study in boxwoods and hornbeams which are two of my favorite plants. (All images are from Garden Design, Photographer Nicola Browne or from Daniel Ost)

 Since Daniel is a floral artist, the clipped boxwoods are a nod to his profession. There are sixteen “petals” of clipped boxwoods which are planted with alpine strawberries in the center. Hornbeams are clipped as pillars surrounding the flowers.

 You can get a slight peek at the ivy covered well in the previous photo, but here you can see it in relation to the field beyond. What is interesting on this image is the quote from Ost. I totally agree about designing thinking about how it will look in the winter, but from previous experience not everyone feels the same way about grass.

 Blue bells are planted under mature trees with more boxwoods.

So I have saved my favorite image for last. Hornbeams again are clipped into pillars (far right) and a crushed stone path follows a long reflection pool. Even though the clipped Hornbeams and rigid lines of the pathway and beds are formal, this spaces feels more relaxed compared to the other areas.

The following two photos are from Daniel’s website of the same group of boxwood. The first image of boxwood covered in a beautiful frost is an example of garden design with beauty in winter.