Having not visited the garden at Great Dixter for over a year, I went twice last month and it has been quite a heady experience. The first visit was with a group of fellow writers for a look round the garden with Rachael, one of the gardeners and a talk by Fergus Garrett, […]
Growing rhubarb & making rhubarb cake
A home baked cake is always a lovely thing, it’s as fresh as you like and you know exactly what’s in it. In this case it’s rhubarb from the allotment that’s been stashed away in the freezer since last year. Planting fruit makes sense for sustainable growing, once it’s in the ground it carries on […]
Cut flowers from the garden in January
Aside from the miles of transportation, there’s something about the brightness of imported, exotic flowers for the house in January that jangles the senses. In any case, big, bright blooms are unlikely to be found in January in my part of the world, but there’s a surprising amount of coloured, shapely foliage and a few […]
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 […]
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 […]
Some helpful tips when you’re shopping for plants
It’s a well known fact that in spring most keen gardeners thoughts turn to buying plants. Easter weekend is one of the busiest ones of the whole year for garden centres, so if you’re tempted to go plant shopping, here’s some helpful information. I’ve written a lot about having a list of plants that will do well […]
Friday inspiration – 5 reasons to grow flowers for cutting
Inspired by these sustainable little plant pots
I’ve been longing to sow some plant and vegetable seeds and now we’ve finally reached the month of March I’m cranking up to get started. I’m going to be making paper pots for my seedlings, my first ones will be extra long for sweet peas because they like plenty of room for their roots. […]
Take a seat and enjoy the garden
However much you enjoy gardening, at this time of year it’s even nicer to make the time to sit in it and relax as well. Having seats and benches permanantly in place around the garden is the best way to encourage you to do this. If you have to find the keys to the shed […]
Growing flowers for cutting
I’ve been growing flowers for cutting in my garden for the last couple of years, they look lovely, but it also means that I don’t buy so many from supermarkets.
Chelsea Flower Show 2011 – It’s not just a shed
Did you notice that most of the show-gardens, large and small have a building of some sort in them? The gardens are created in just three weeks and a building of some sort helps to give an impression of permanence, a feeling that the garden is well established. I love this garden, it ticks all the boxes for me, […]
Why this light bulb is a bit like good garden design
Because at it’s most fundamental, any really good design, be it for a phone a garden or a kettle, must be both practical and pleasing to the eye. Garden designers need to understand all about proportion, scale, context and how a garden plan works in it’s three dimensional form. They must also understand all about […]
Can sustainable gardens be stylish?
Well of course it can…. with a bit of creativity and planning TIMBER: We all know about using old wooden palettes to make compost bins, but how about transforming used scaffold boards into decking. Sanding them will reveal the lovely timber under the old bits of plaster etc. The picture above shows a creative […]