I’m starting a new blog series about plant crushes. You know, those moments when you’re walking down the street, or leafing through a magazine, or watching something on TV, and you suddenly fall in love with a previously unknown or unnoticed plant. Everyone does that, right? Anyway… I’m calling that a plant crush. This month, my plant crush is a… Read more →
Category: My Garden
A Potting Place
I’ve been quietly tinkering away on an important area of my garden. It’s the area where I do all of my seed sowing, prepare cuttings, prick out and pot on seedling, plant up pots and hanging baskets, nurse ailing plants, and store pots of spring bulbs and plants that I’m not ready to plant out. Every garden needs a potting place. It’s a behind-the-scenes area, where all… Read more →
How To Create A Wonderful Wildlife Garden
It seems that every day in my garden, this month, I meet a new little creature that has decided to come and live here. It brings me a ridiculous amount of joy to have a garden that is buzzing with life. I don’t think a green space can really be called a garden unless it’s full of life. The kids… Read more →
Floral Perfection :: How To Make An Auricula Theatre
As soon as I saw the little auricula theatre at Sissinghurst Castle Garden last month, I just knew I had to have one. Auricula flowers are exquisite perfection. Their patterned, multicoloured petals are dusted with powdery farina, and held high, on long, straight stalks. And they are sweetly scented, especially en masse. The leaves are a silvery green, smooth and surprisingly tough and fleshy. Auriculas were… Read more →
Finding Time To Do Nothing
I have a favourite spot to sit in my garden. I take time to sit there every day, weather permitting. And if it’s raining, I’ll sit in the doorway of my shed with the door open, watching the rain. A cup of coffee, or in the evening a glass of wine, and some quiet time to myself out there, listening to… Read more →
Things To Do In A Weekend :: Build A Stumpery
Around this time last year, I planted up one of my first professional garden designs. It was a stumpery, built on an existing mound of earth in the north-facing corner of a garden in Norwich. The stumpery frames a pond, with a steep cascade and bog garden. Steps, made from old logs and stepping stones, take you up and over it, so you… Read more →
It Lives!!! (My Garden Has Woken Up)
Before the epic rain showers and hail that descended on us this afternoon, I managed a cup of coffee outside, and a pootle around the garden to take a few photos. There have been brief moments this week, when the sun was out, and the birds were busy and singing loudly, when it’s really felt like spring. We’re not quite there yet. When… Read more →
Who Am I Kidding?
Ever have one of those days where all your self-confidence seems to have been sucked out of you? You suddenly feel like a total fraud, and wonder how you ever managed to kid yourself that you were capable of doing anything worthwhile. These days are the bane of any person prone to depression or anxiety. On these days, the depression lies… Read more →
Beginning The Cut Back
I couldn’t hold myself back any longer today. With the sun pouring in through the windows near my desk, I had to put down my pen and pick up my secateurs. It was blissfully mild and bright in the garden, and the temperature was in double figures. It felt like time to claim back my garden after its winter break. At the start of the… Read more →
Stamping On Snails (& Other Ways To Reclaim Your Power)
Okay, so the world’s going to hell in a carrier bag, and we all feel pretty powerless to change things. Although many of us are trying to do our bit to, in some tiny way, influence the change we want to see in the world, it’s easy to become disheartened, and even rather frightened by what’s happening out there. I… Read more →