Svetlana Kuznetsova Turns Dream Of A Beautiful Flower-Filled Garden and Rooftop Into Reality

Garden

I came across Svetlana Kuznetsova on VKontakte, noticing the stunning photos of her garden. It is located on the outskirts of the city of Tosno in the Leningrad Region. The plot covers 17 acres, but its shape is unconventional, elongated. At first glance, you would never guess that the garden is only six years old, with the first plantings made in 2017. Now, let’s hear from Svetlana herself.

“The story of how my garden came to be is quite ordinary. My husband dreamed of a house, and I dreamed of a blooming garden and a terrace adorned with clematis. When the stars aligned, we found a perfect plot by the river on the outskirts of our city, built our house, and I started working on the garden.

The first challenge I faced was how to arrange plantings on a narrow and long plot of land. I didn’t want it to look like a narrow, long corridor of trees and shrubs. That’s when the idea of a garden-mini park came to me, with winding paths and an air of mystery—what lies beyond the turn? This technique blurs the boundaries of the plot and makes the garden more interesting. I immediately dismissed the idea of having grassy paths since I knew that the grass would encroach into the mixed borders. That’s how the idea of using cobblestone paths came about…

The second task was to decorate the fence. It was clear that I needed to plant conifers, trees, and shrubs. However, in two places, the width between the fence and the cobblestone was about 60-70 cm. That’s where I decided to plant astilbes, as those areas were shaded, and astilbes, unlike clematis, tolerate such conditions. Later, I planted astilbes in other areas as well. They beautifully adorn the fences.

deciduous trees, and shrubs. Overall, I envisioned my garden as a garden of hydrangeas and clematis!

Of course, my priority was to plant the garden’s framework—conifers.

They are indeed the backbone of my garden. I have over forty hydrangea bushes in my garden. Clematis, as I had always dreamed, are planted on the trellises of the terrace and on the arches in the garden.

My garden is filled with perennials, and there are no annual flowers at all. To fill the garden with blooms, I looked for fast-growing, long-flowering perennials. That’s how a multitude of geraniums appeared in my garden. But the variety ‘Rozanna’ captured my heart. It’s a splendid flower that blooms endlessly until the strong frosts. The plant forms a voluminous bush, about 50 cm tall, with a spread of up to 1.5 m. Underneath the Rozannas, I have spring bulbous plants: crocuses, muscari, tulips. After their blooming period, the geraniums cover them with their abundance, and I don’t see their withered leaves.

Of course, I now have many different flowers. I always want to try something new. I never thought that lilies would grow in my garden. I thought they wouldn’t fit in my flowerbeds. But in the end, I decided to give it a try… and now I can’t imagine my garden without them!

To understand whether I have achieved everything I envisioned, as I imagined it, takes time. The garden is young. It’s only six years old. But it’s growing and changing. And with it, I am changing too…”