I have hazy memories of visiting the first Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 1993 & my how it’s changed over the years. My impression is that in those early years visitors wanted inspiration & ideas to use in their own gardens. This is still the case, but life has become a bit more complex […]
How to make a good looking garden
My Garden In December
With the end of the year just round the corner, it seems like a good time to look back on the garden in 2016. Our garden changed a lot in late summer when the landscape people arrived & did some major work. Underground drainage pipes were the most important part of all the work. There’s […]
The Walled Garden Arundel Castle
The visit to Arundel Castle last week was to spend the day there with my eldest son & his 2 young boys, that in itself is a joy. Add-on a visit to a garden that has been on my ‘must visit’ list for years & happens to be in the castle, & there’s my idea […]
Garden Design Tips from Suffolk.
Hello, I hope your weekend was good? We’re back from a week of mostly clear, blue skies & sunshine in Suffolk. If you don’t know it, it’s a pretty county in the east of England with lovely countryside & wonderful buildings, like this house in the village we stayed in. It looked so amazing that […]
Plant of the Month- Cosmos bipinnatus
Hello there, what a difference a few days make, we’re into September & doesn’t it it feel like there’s been a big shift in the seasons? It’s probably because the school holidays are at an end & the shops are full of warm clothing, but although the days are shorter, the weather is being kind […]
Big Changes To Our Garden.
I do like growing things & pottering around in our garden, but it’s been a bit tricky since we moved here 18 months ago. The garden was a big reason for choosing this place, it’s flat, which makes it very useable, there’s a lovely old, brick wall along one side, a few David Austin roses & […]
A Vintage Garden Barn Sale
July is well underway and so far this summer there’ve been plenty of garden-related events. This time last week I spent a wonderful day at The Hampton Court Flower Show, the Saturday before I went to a Vintage Barn Sale at the home of Sarah Moore, winner of the Great Interior Design Challenge in 2014 […]
Fabulous Front Gardens
I went to the Hampton Court Flower Show on Monday and bought a greenhouse… I didn’t actually take it home with me, just ordered it ready for delivery in September, when our garden renovation should be complete. I’m pretty excited about our little greenhouse, it’s only 2 x 2metres and it’s got a smart dark-green […]
Quick & easy guide to planting a border
I’m still mulling over the plan for our garden, it’s been a work in progress since we moved here in February, I’ve been distracted by other goings-on, but I’m almost there. The garden measures 20 x 12m, some areas just need a few extra plants but there are a couple of new borders to be […]
More about colour in the garden.
A colourful garden in early summer is easy to manage without too much effort, but there’s often a gap in late summer before the colours of autumn kick in. I wrote the other day about plants that flower in late summer and how it’s good to have a few of them, especially near the house, […]
A new garden
A new garden is both a wonderful thing and ever so slightly daunting, there’s a lot to do to get it looking just right with many decisions in between. So here’s few things about our new garden, some pretty plants have emerged amongst the brambles during the three weeks that we’ve been here one […]
Come & join me on a visit to The High Line, New York
There are times when you don’t make too many plans or over-think a visit and it turns out to be a wonderful experience. On the other hand, look forward to something for ages, make detailed arrangements and have a clear picture of how amazing it will be, and it can be a little disappointing. I […]
There’s a new contemporary garden fair in town
There’s a new show in town, the first Grow London contemporary garden fair opens on Hampstead Heath in London this weekend. Starting first with plants, top nurseries like Crug Farm Plants, Special Plants with Derry Watkins and many more are there. As well as their wonderful plants, these people are true experts so there’s lots […]
An inspiring French garden.
When you’re in France and anywhere near the Berry region, try and make time to visit this beautiful garden in the former Orsan Priory. This was my second visit and I admit to being rather obsessed by it. Prieure Notre-Dame d’Orsan, originally established as a monastery in 1107, was made into a garden and the buildings converted […]
Flower shows & garden events in June 2014
There are lots of garden events happening in June, they’re great places to go for inspiration and a good day out, so here’s a taste of what’s happening in June 6 -8 June Stansted Garden Show Stansted Park, Rowlands Castle, Hampshire PO9 6DX see the website for details. 7 – 8 June NGS National Gardens Festival […]
A good looking, practical garden – ideas for plant supports
Lots of plants need support to stop them flopping around, permanent planting like the tall purple/blue flower spikes of herbaceous Agastache, Dahlias or annuals such as cornflowers especially if you want nice straight stems for cut flowers. It helps to get this support in early so that plants can grow up through it, it looks natural and […]
Inspiration for your vegetable garden from a beautiful French Potager
We had a trip to France earlier this month and visited a couple of favourite gardens, both had inspiring Potagers. I love the idea of a vegetable garden looking great as well as being practical and productive. Prieure Notre-Dame d’Orsan, originally established as a monastery in 1107, was made into a garden and the buildings converted into […]
Plants & garden ideas from The Chelsea Flower Show
I’ve been absorbed by The Chelsea Flower Show during this last week, now that it’s all over, I wanted to share some of my highlights of the Show. The Paradise Garden, designed by Cleve West for M&G Investments, was the first one I saw when I arrived. I always like the detail at the back of his show gardens, […]
Best plants from The Chelsea Flower show 2014
Back to the Chelsea Flower Show to have a look at some winning plant combinations and popular flowers that seemed to be everywhere, though I’m sure the designers don’t get together and collaborate on this? I haven’t noticed quite so many lupins in recent years, but this year they were everywhere, most noticabely the yellow ones in the […]
How to make a good looking garden
Gardening is mostly about growing plants, making sure they thrive and look nice, but if you want the whole garden to look good you’ll need to step back and see the wider picture. A good looking garden has a purposeful lay-out, rather than a haphazard one, with all the different parts nicely in balance. Guide […]
Grass, shingle or stone for your garden floor?
It’s true that plants are usually the eye catching element of a garden, especially in spring and summer. They sing out and grab attention, whilst the less glamerous parts like the paving, can easily be overlooked. However, paving, or whetever you choose to put on your garden floor, can be expensive both in time and […]
How sculpture can improve your garden.
I love seeing sculpture in gardens, it’s a permanent feature that adds another layer of interest to a garden, but the stumbling block is that it can be very expensive and exactly how do you fit it into a garden? It would be easy to spend a lot, but there are ways round this, and finding […]
Small garden style
Most of have small gardens, but let’s not be inhibited by this. You just have to be a bit more thoughtful about the lay-out and what you put into it because everything is magnified in a small space. The lay-out is important, sub-division with hedges, trellis or planting gives the illusion that the garden is bigger. […]
Time to plant a tree
Have you been thinking about planting a tree recently, we’re still in tree planting season, so maybe I can persuade you? Firstly, there are a whole range of benefits: it’ll provide food and shelter for birds and small animals choose a fruit tree and enjoy the crops as well as all the other advantages from a […]
Colour in the garden part 3
Colour in the garden isn’t just about using plants and flowers, some great effects can be had by using coloured objects. Painting a wall introduces colour quickly and easily, and can be changed if you get tired of the colour. It’s good to think about what’s planted in front of the wall too, these white flowers […]
Colour in the garden part 2
It’s very useful to know how to use colour to create mood and atmosphere in the garden as discussed in the last post, but most people want too know how to combine colours together. Using the colour wheel is a good starting point if you’re unsure what to do. Colours opposite each other on the […]
Colour in the garden part 1
Winter is settling in here and although most gardens still have the lovely mellow yellow tones of autumn, it won’t be long before there is little colour around. So this seems like a good time to think about using colour in the garden and making plans for next year. It’s easy to underestimate how much we’re affected […]
The show garden from the Chelsea Flower Show that keeps on giving….
If you love gardens but feel that you’re a bit short on creativity, then seeing how design experts create a garden can be very inspiring. But when a series of designers reinterprate one RHS show garden into a number of different concepts, it becomes fun as well as inspirational. The original Cloudy Bay Discovery garden, designed by the Wilson McWilliam Studio, won a […]
Garden steps, inspiration from the garden at Great Dixter.
Steps are a practical way of getting you from one level to another in a garden, but it’s very pleasing when they look good too. These steps in the garden at Great Dixter have lovely detailing of terracotta tiles in the paving that match tiling details in the walls. They also match the colour of the […]
Borrowing a view for your garden
If you feel a bit limited by your own garden, why not borrow a view. It’s a well established technique and is officially called ‘a borrowed landscape’, where views outside the garden can be incorporated into the composition of your own garden. It encourages you to look beyond the garden boundary and expands the […]
Gorgeous plants and ideas from Marks Hall Garden.
This beautifully designed walled garden has been made in the former 18th century kitchen garden at Marks Hall in Essex. Like many other grand houses, Marks Hall was demolished in the 1950s, having fallen into decline during World War 2. The garden and arboretum are now managed by The Marks Hall Trust. The entrance to […]
Great Dixter, ideas to use in your garden.
The garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex is probably one of the most famous gardens in the world. It was the family home of gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd, who dedicated his life to the garden and made great changes to the planting. Most of the garden’s original lay-out was designed by Edwin Lutyens for Christopher Lloyds’ […]
Friday inspiration: have a seat and enjoy your garden
Summer is certainly over, but there will still be days when you can sit in your garden and enjoy the autumn sunshine. It’s nice to have a bench or seating away from the house so you get a different perspective of the garden. The set-up of this bench, perched on a little platform to enjoy the […]
A Tudor house and a beautiful garden
Tucked away behind this beautiful Tudor house in Coggeshall, Essex, is a simple but charming garden. The garden is divided into three distinct areas. The first section near the house has a handsome, herringbone brick path leading through to a lawned area. This style of path works so well with the Tudor building. There are plenty of […]
The creative recycling of a garden after the Chelsea Flower Show
Way back in May the Wilson McWilliam Studio exhibited a highly acclaimed garden at the Chelsea Flower Show which won a silver-gilt medal. I became very familiar with this garden as I followed it’s progress and wrote a weekly blog post over 10 weeks as it was developed for Chelsea. But the story of […]
Design ideas from a beautiful garden in the heart of the City of London.
How to begin a new garden or improve an existing one, can be a stumbling block for many people, including professional designers. I recently came across a beautiful little garden in the heart of the City of London, the attraction is the lovely plants, a great lay-out and that the whole garden fits in so well with its surroundings. It’s on the […]
Friday inspiration ~ fancy a summer-house in your garden?
This is rather grand as summer-houses go, but I think you have to aim high when you want to be inspired. If you’re not planning on having something on this scale you can still use it for inspiration: I like the colour of this one, this soft grey blends in well and looks good with green, see […]
The reinvention of a garden after it’s appearance at the Chelsea Flower Show
It can be an abrupt end to the Chelsea Flower Show, when after months of work, sweat and sometimes tears, the gardens are dismantled within days. The area is grassed over so efficiently that it’s hard to believe that anything was there before, so it’s great to see a garden that I came to know quite […]
Ponds and water features, 5 reasons to have one in your garden.
I suppose we don’t really think of sound as a vital part of a garden, but it is a really nice thing to include. Whether it’s the rustling noise of the wind through bamboo or the sound of a gentle water fountain. This clear, contemporary pool divides the garden nicely too. A series of ponds with small cascades […]
Go on, grow some herbs.
We should all grow some herbs, whether you’ve got enough room for a whole dedicated herb garden, a corner in an average sized garden or a little window-sill, you can manage a few and your life will be all the better for it. I’m evangelical about this because growing your own herbs has so many benefits: they have interesting leaves, […]
Some of the best gardens at The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2013
There’s something rather indulgent about visiting a garden show when it’s hot and sunny and all the exhibitors are busy working to a dead-line. Such a lot of hard work is involved, but as always, they pulled it off and everything looked sparkling and in tip-top condition ready for Press Day yesterday. There are some […]
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2013 – A Preview
The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show opens to the public on Tuesday 9th July, I had a look round today and as ever it promises to be a wonderful Show. This year there are three new zones: 1. GROW: all about plants and includes The Floral Marquee, the nurseries are in the Plant Vilage area and […]
A garden visit & 3 useful tips to take away.
As you can imagine, I’m rather obssessed with gardens and I’ve vowed to make the most of the summer and do a decent amount of garden visiting whenever I can. So we spent part of this gloriously, sunny weekend visiting Tilford Cottage garden in Surrey. The lower garden comprises mostly a large grass meadow with paths mown through […]
A peek into a private Gertrude Jekyll garden.
I live in a part of Surrey that has a real association with the famous designer, Gertrude Jekyll (1843 – 1932). She spent most of her adult life around here and formed her association with the architect Edwin Lutyens here too. Her house, Munstead Wood, is just a mile up the road from ours. Jekyll […]
The Chelsea Flower Show – paving ideas for your garden
There were some really beautiful plants at this years Chelsea Flower Show, but beautiful as the plants were, it’s the lay-out of the garden, how it’s divided up, that really helps to hold the design together, as demonstrated by the paths in this lovely garden by Jo Thompson: This crisply cut paving, butted closely together, gives a contemporary look to […]
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013 – inspiring gardens
After a busy few months culminating in a few weeks of hectic activity, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is over for this year. There were lots of inspiring gardens in all sorts of sizes, here in no particular order, are a few of them with ideas that you may like to use in your garden. Regular […]
The Chelsea Flower Show 2013 – ideas to take away
There were plenty of interesting sights at The Chelsea Flower Show this week to take my mind off the chilly weather. This is one of the gardens that I found myself taking lots of photos of and standing for ages to contemplate all the subtle details in it. It’s been designed by Christopher Bradley Hole and is inspired by three […]
The Cloudy Bay Discovery Garden at the 2013 Chelsea Flower Show
After blogging about the progress of Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam’s show garden for the past 10 weeks, the Chelsea Flower Show week has finally arrived and their garden was unveiled. What a transformation, from this rather scruffy patch of land just a few days ago to this beautiful space: Here’s Gavin doing a bit of tweaking before the […]
The Cloudy Bay Discovery garden at the Chelsea Flower Show 2013 – week 1
Over the past 9 weeks I’ve been lucky enough to observe the progress of the plans for Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliams’ show garden for this years Chelsea Flower Show. It was a hive of activity to day when I went along to see how it was all going with just 4 days to go before it’s revealed […]
The Cloudy Bay Discovery Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show 2013 – Week 2
This Thursday sees the start date for the building of Gavin McWilliam and Andrew Wilsons garden at Chelsea. It’s been a long haul for them, but now we’re talking about days rather than weeks until the garden becomes a reality. The final arrangements are all falling into place very nicely. During this last week […]
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