A garden evolves over the years. I know I am stating the obvious here, but sometimes I am taken aback by the massive changes in the gardens at Ballywalter Park over the years. Take the water colour above, it is from 1902 and once I had realised it was a view straight to the Irish Sea I was completely enamoured by the idea of being able to see the sea from the house. We can see the sea in the winter, but once there are leaves on the trees, that view is shut off. The picture below is an aerial view from 1978, looking in the opposite direction. In other words from the Irish Sea towards the house. You cannot see that view today because of the number of trees that have been planted since then.
These are aerial views from 1961 and 2010.
What is interesting is the pine which leans slightly to the south in the water colour is visible in both the aerial views, but you can’t necessarily see the lean.
I of course look at this garden every day, can therefore see lots of other things that have changed, the Quercus Ilex which in the 1961 picture is a Blob and in the 2010 photo I can just see the work I did on it back in 2007 to make it look like a tree, you know with a trunk. This was the time when our big garden tidy up started. It continues to this day, but for me the Walled Garden is the pearl which keeps me going.