For me, dahlias need to look carved from gemstone rock with a richness of colour to…
Garden chat
The law of limiting factors
Everyone is talking about the weather as though we haven’t only just entered mid-Summer. Don’t allow…
Allotment Month 33: today is a good day
This was the best day on the allotment all year, a breeze and drizzle, the air…
Real millennial gardens
Some of my biggest gardening inspiration comes from friends who I wouldn’t have expected to love…
Easily multiply your Solenostemon with midsummer cuttings
By July Solenostemon should be growing rapidly and, with the foliage types, it’s often useful to…
Copper tape – it works
People who’ve been to our garden always ask how I keep my Hostas safe from slugs…
And it was all yellow
When I first started seriously geeking out on gardening I kept reading again and again that…
Robot lawn mowers, battery operated gardening tools and other tech at the Garden Press Event
I attended the Garden Press Event for the first time this year and it was a…
Surviving: checking the damage caused during the coldest week in eight years
The week during Storm Emma – the coldest week in our garden in eight years –…
Dr Nathaniel Ward’s Clapham home and garden to be demolished imminently
Three years ago almost to the day I wrote this blog post about discovering the existence…
There you are
For hours now I search for you Across chalky downs of grass Jewels a plenty everywhere…
From the streets: A walk in the winter sunshine
The interplay of nature and humanity is endlessly fascinating to observe. Nowhere is it more obvious…
How long do you spend planning your garden?
So here’s a question: throughout the year, how much time do you spend planning and thinking…
Garden Blog of the Year
Exciting news! My little blog has only gone and won an award. A real one! LOOK:…
The Great Mystery: closer to nature with the awesome power of seasons
I had a rare day to myself on Sunday and I used it to wander around…
Oh Autumn!
As an artist, through each waking day there are thousands of wonderful things that catch my…
NGS September Open Day – #DahliaFest
Chris and I have been huge fans of the National Garden Scheme (NGS) charity for a…
Smudging seasons
Chris pointed out this week that the best sunsets happen at this time of year, something…
Pot’s Growing On? Summer part two
After August’s overcast skies, in time for bank holiday weekend the sun is back for summer…
Make time for what you love
With work, gardening, friends and family, my life can quickly be filled with wonderful things but…
Photo gallery: Malibu’s unexpectedly exquisite wild flowers
I had planned to write a more detailed article about Malibu’s national parks and wildlife. However,…
From the streets: California
Chris and I have just come back from a trip to LA, Vegas and Malibu visiting…
Plantaholics Anonymous
[Warning: major plant geekage ahead] One of the best things to happen over the last year…
The liberation of education
This blog post was originally titled “education = better vegetation” but the new rhyme is more…
Spring-a-ling-a-ling
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be wondering how on earth it’s April when you thought…
Who died and made Lupins a ‘cottage garden’ plant?
It’s been niggling me for yonks: people calling Lupins “cottage garden” plants.
Let’s make green flowers our naughty little secret
There’s one thing I will guarantee right now: you are going to see many more green flowers…
And so, we fight
I recently learnt that one colony of our rare native Pasque flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris, was wiped out in 1992…
Will Apple images save planet Earth?
Over the last year I’ve been thinking of creating an app that uses people’s smartphone geolocation…
The best potatoes to grow
Last year I grew a set of seven different potato cultivars and only really liked one…
44 Future gardening moments of 2016
Future gardening is the phrase I use to describe my personal take on the world. Be forward…
Out of the shrubbery into the scrub
On Saturday 26th November 2016 the SGD hosted a conference about the use of shrubs in gardens.…
Have you ever changed your mind about a plant you hate?
We all have them, a list of plants we dislike. Yet every now and then something…
Designing for wildlife
This video is quite long but the presentation within it is important and well worth watching…
Our lives are not our own – Kennington Park, London
One of the joys of living in London, the forest city, is discovering one of its…
My latest victim
Yamadori is the Japanese word for collecting wild trees to grow as bonsai. Today, while rustling through…
Our inner city wildlife sanctuary
I grow our garden as much for wildlife as for design and plants. Wildlife adds many…
Living on a prairie (part 1)
This year I took on my allotment and I designated one bed for garden design experiments.…
Summer highlights in our garden
Our experimental garden is now in its third year with lots to fix but standing back…
Thompson & Morgan Trial Field Visit
Michael Perry invited me and a group of other gardening bloggers to have a tour of…
Does peat free compost work?
Between 2015- 2016 I put peat free compost to the ultimate test, I only used peat…
Form factor – our garden in June 2016
The best thing I’ve added to our border this year (I think so far) is Nicotiana…
Wild orchid hunting
My friend Pete Langley took me to a secret location on the South Downs one sunny…
24 Things at the Chelsea Flower Show 2016
This is my third year at the Chelsea Flower Show and it remains an emotional experience.…
7 Trends at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016
I’ll have more blog posts this week with my photos and thoughts from the Chelsea Flower…
11 Realities of Gardening in London
Either I’m inexplicably inept at gardening, or living in the big smoke is providing a world…
Tulips, planting out tomatoes early and seedlings
Tulips: the last two years I’ve tried growing some tulips and it went horribly wrong. Especially…
PHOTO GALLERY: Barbican Conservatory, London
Brutalist, futurist. Despite the concrete, the Barbican exudes such atmosphere and style that you’ll feel as…