Exciting news! My little blog has only gone and won an award. A real one! LOOK:
I’m very honoured to have been given the Blog of the Year 2017 award by the judges at the Garden Media Guild (GMG), the trade organisation for garden publications, books and TV shows. I was sitting with the lovely people at Westland Horticulture on their table. It felt a true privilege to attend the awards with so many of those responsible for the gardening media I love.
The blog of the year award was one of the first to be announced by designer Ann-Marie Powell. I admire all of the other finalists so much it was great to see them on screen too.
But don’t worry, the fame didn’t go to my head. Instead of breezily striding up past the likes of Roy Lancaster and Carol Klein to collect my award, I did of course make sure I totally embarrassed myself in front of them when my name was read out – welling up and then stumbling through the audience before being told to hurry up. But eventually I made it…
Over lunch I was lucky to be on a table with Phil Clayton, features editor from RHS’ The Garden magazine, author Val Bradley and presenter Rachel de Thame. I give full blame credit to Rachel for sparking my Dahlia obsession, which you can read about in this article from 2014. Val took this photo of Rachel and I after I’d come back down to earth:
Having written JackWallington.com since 2013, this means a lot to me personally – for once I can’t actually explain this properly in words but I’ll try… This site is more than just a blog to me, it’s a diary of a life defining few years in which I’ve focussed on what I love: gardening, writing, art and design. To have a little nod from the people I respect so highly is uplifting. Thank you to the GMG and for everyone who has had such kind words about my writing.
I hope people enjoy or find my articles useful – please stay with me as I keep a written and visual record of my journey into the garden design and natural world through 2018. Onwards!
Wow congratulations Jack you truly deserve to win . I always look forward to reading your Garden Blogs even though lm moving to the Ring of Kerry in Ireland with my Tree Ferns I will still be looking forward to reading all future Blogs 🍀☘️ Patrick de Nangle
Hi Patrick,
Thank you so much! Are you definitely moving now? How exciting! I must visit one day.
Jack
Jack I am really thrilled you received your award .
I have really enjoyed reading your blog ( your mum gave me a nudge ) it has been so interesting .
We would love to see you in Wendover , perhaps lunch in the spring .
Love Di & Andy x
Hi Di and Andy! Thank you, it’s so lovely to hear from you both! Mum and dad were really happy to see you recently in Yorkshire 🙂 Lunch in spring sounds wonderful – I am definitely coming your way then to see some wild flowers and I would love to see you again.
I will be in touch nearer the time.
Jack xx
Huge congratulations Jack! It is a well deserved win and I’m really happy for you. A you say – onwards! 😊
Thank you Nic 😀
Omg! Mim, that is so amazing, I’m so proud of you. You’ve worked so hard on this for so long, it’s an amazing blog (I read it occasionally! ) you truly have a way with words and a real talent for garden design. A definite step up from squigeon breeding at uni! So happy for you. xxx
Thank you so much Kirsty! Anything beats squideon breeding… as fun as that was. Hope you are well xx
Congratulations! (from way down south in Africa)
Thank you Diana, hope life in South Africa is going well – I’m starting to make plans to visit in the next 18 months or so if I can.
Jack x
Wow! Congratulations. Terrific news, well deserved!
x lucy
Thank you Lucy! I hope you are well. Jack xx
Well deserved. I never miss any of your posts. Bravo!
Aw thanks Helen! 😃 xx
I ‘ve just finished reading your wild about weeds book, enjoyed it and congratulations on it. I suppose selection of weeds to include must reflect personal experience of gardens and land in general but I’m intrigued why bitter cress wasn’t included. Staggering pest here ( in central Ireland)
Hi David,
Thank you for reading the book! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Good question. I was limited somewhat by the page count, I do have a full list of 200 weeds I would have loved to include in one form of other but the size and format of book meant there were some restrictions.
It’s been almost two years since I wrote the book and I can’t fully remember now the exact thinking about leaving Hairy Bitter Cress out of the bad weeds section – I have it in every garden I work in so am very familiar – but I suspect it’s because from my experience, although it spreads and grows rapidly, it never actually seems to interfere with other plants growing, compared to say, ground elder. Most garden plants used in garden designs outcompete it easily. I was probably also thinking a little of its edible qualities. So I think it will be a combination of limited spaces for the ‘weeds to avoid’ pages and it not being as bad, in my opinion, as the others I have listed.
My main focus when writing the book was on the core message and the main ‘weeds’ section that makes up the bulk of the book too, the good and bad weeds sections were really just for illustrative purposes to demonstrate that there are different levels of weedy behaviour in people’s eyes. And where a plant sits on that scale is in the eye of the beholder.
You never know, if the book sells well enough I might be able to release an updated version with all of the extra plants too 🙂 Or include them in another book one day.
Thank you again, it’s always great to hear from someone who has taken the time to read what you’ve written, and for the feedback.
Jack