We are at the apogee of the gardening season. The oriental poppies and irises have stormed the classic flower borders. June is it for blowsy blooms, zinging pinks and a heightening of the colour palette. It is good moment to share this trip I made to Giverny, Claude Monet’s garden.
Umbellifered out and spoilt at Gravetye Manor
The day before yesterday we were umbellifered out and spoilt to bits all in one sitting, so to speak. A birthday celebration took 3 of us to Gravetye Manor in north Sussex, near East Grinstead. It is not a bit of the map that you might pick on and say “I must go there” hard…
Hats off to Chelsea
A whole week has evaporated since the Chelsea Flower Show visit. I’ve examined my pics and scribbled notes and here they are. A little old hat by now. I swear this lady wears this hat every year. Definitely photographed her before. The sleuthing visit of one day gives a sort of hysterical edge to fitting…
Nature is inspiring (with apologies for this post disappearing)
Arrest yourself on a country walk by drinking in the surroundings: shimmering leaves, whispering grasses, exuberant colour of stems or twisted torso of bare tree. Nature throws out high design. Where we live, the
A Potager of sorts
At the entrance to our garden there is a courtyard. In it a raised square flowerbed edged in green oak. The design reason was to cut down on the square meters of bricks that we laid out in the garden as pathways and to provide a sunny terrace.
Collaborative planting in Hove
I went to Hove to look at a garden – the owner and I are doing a collaborative planting. This means tempering desire with the practical. There used to be a time when I would heave heavy tomes round under my arm to show off planty pics. Hurray for the internet which lets us pull…
Best and Worst Front Gardens – series 6
Nearly got run over photographing this but I just had to share this front garden. Ratings explained: * call for a skip ** concrete it over *** covet it **** I’d sling my hammock here ***** in my wildest dreams.
The questionable matter of choice in choosing the right plant
Last weekend an old friend came to stay. We talked about garden design and his question was “don’t you have too much choice?”. My firm principle is to work with what is there. Most of my customers have large country gardens which may have gone awry. Beneath the quick revenge that nature takes, there…
No camera? No excuse for bad website pics.
This is a blog post about pulling my socks up. I must have one of the worst websites around – a sort of Mickey-mouse-pasted-together affair. A friend looked at it a few weeks ago and was polite enough not to shudder. However she offered a swap of planting design for techi sharpening up. I was…
My terrible meadow sowing attempts
There is a patch of ground in my garden that has definitely got the upper hand. It started as a sulking vegetable plot full of stones and rampant sun flowers. That era over, the next was a green manure crop of Phacelia tanacetifolia. Budding up, I failed to cut off the flowers and the next…