I feel the earth move under my feet
Recently we ran a blog about the secret life of trees, exploring how they communicate with each other through a web of roots and fungus in the soil. Until recently this interconnected world beneath the soil was almost completely unknown and it sparked a curiosity in...
Green and Growing
It’s a funny thing but I’ve noticed that, when I ask new clients about their favourite colours for the garden, green is hardly ever mentioned. I suppose it’s because we take it for granted that a garden always involves green. Green is seen as the backdrop, the first...
Star of Wonder 21 Dec
I’m a bit of a star gazer. I love looking out across a clear night sky, somewhere deep in the countryside so there’s no light pollution. Given the season, I thought it might be interesting to talk in this blog about stars, starry plants and starry things generally!...
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...