The Triumph of Modernism
‘Bring the outside in and the inside out’. ‘Make the garden an outside room’. How many times do we hear these concepts? They have become a near universal part of modern garden design. But where do they come from? And why do so many houses being built now, along with...
The Hidden Trees Of Life
When I was a child I picked up the notion from somewhere that the roots of a tree always exactly mirror the canopy, in both extent and depth. Well I’ve seen enough blown over trees to know that isn’t quite the case, but this year I’ve found out that what trees get up...
A Restoration Garden
A friend recently had his Ceanothus die on him. It was over 10 years old and all three trunks had spilt. Ceanothus_red_brick_wall In May it was a sea of blue flowers with a contented buzzing cloud of bees all over it. Through it he’d grown two varieties of clematis...
The colour wheel and garden design
We are family, I got all my sisters with me. Gardeners World recently ran a short piece about how to arrange a colour scheme for a garden using a colour wheel. We’re garden designers and that got us thinking. Sometimes it’s not clear just what a Garden Designer is, of...
Herb Garden
A garden for utility and DelightI wrote recently about Cottage gardens and the charm of their seemingly haphazard dense masses of plants. One of their great pleasures comes from the mixing of utility and delight, where food, medicine and beauty commingle, with...
Cottage Garden
The Cottage Garden. We all picture one the moment those words are uttered. A blissful froth of beautiful, informal bounty. Delphiniums and lupins nod in front of an ancient wall smothered with clematis and roses. Higher up the Wisteria hangs its glorious plumes....
Meadow Planting in Your Garden
Do you dream of attracting butterflies and songbirds to your garden? You do? Would you like a non-stop display of flowers from spring to autumn? You would? Well, have I got the answer for you! Planting a meadow, small or large, in your garden will be good for the...
Gardens and Art, Deeply Intertwined
The news that Sarah Price, a gold medal winner at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, began her career as an artist started me thinking about all the ways in which art, artists and gardens are intertwined. We all know about Monet and the gardens and Giverny...
Colour Keukenhof-style!
Do you like to tulips? Not that bothered? Ah, but do you like colour? If colour – rich, vibrant colour and lots of it – is your thing, then Keukenhof gardens near Amsterdam should be on your bucket list. I was lucky enough to visit Keukenhof a couple of weekends ago....
It’s blossom time at Kew Gardens!
Kew Gardens is looking stunning at the moment, with blossom, bulbs, and perennial flowers all surging fourth together. Kew contains the most diverse collection of living plants of any botanic garden in the world. Parts of it were designed by renowned...