They’re back! Those little notch mark bites on your otherwise lovely leaves. Yep, it must be…
Passed my RHS Level 2 exams!
In September 2014 I started my RHS Level 2 Course with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,…
Where did August go?!
Sorry for a lack of updates about our garden recently, I’ll have stuff to share later…
Regent’s Park a high summer stunner
I can’t be very observant. I’ve been visiting Regent’s Park my whole life but only paid…
Xylem and phloem
Noticed this amazing slice of tree trunk on our bathroom door, perfectly capturing the xylem and…
NGS 2015 – one of the greatest things to hit British summertime
Quite unexpectedly, one of the highlights of my year snuck up on me and I now…
Sissinghurst & Monks House – intertwined lives endure in the gardens
We visited Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst Castle and Virginia Woolf’s Monks House on separate days during our…
Great Dixter – a garden outside of time
Stepping onto Great Dixter soil is like stepping into a dream world of wispy, airy meadows,…
Nymans, Hayward’s Heath
On Sunday 5th July, we visited Nymans, one of the four famous gardens featured in the…
A walk on the South Downs at dusk
It started with a lama and ended with an allotment of Delphiniums, with wildflower meadows and…
Standen House, East Grinsted
On the first morning of our summer holiday in Sussex we were diverted by rain from Wakehurst…
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in early summer
My fourth trip to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the first time at the start…
Ferns at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
I’ve gone fern mad – I don’t even know how it happened. This weekend, on my…
Fuzzy buzz: heuchera think you are?
How cool is this little fella? Buzzin around. Couldn’t get enough of the Heucheras. Cheeky tube…
15 Things at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015
Last year was my first trip to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, it changed my world.…
Pot’s growing on: Dahlias, Nasturtiums and… cats?
April 2015, what a month! Practically no rain and hot all month, then the weather turned…
NGS 2015: 51 The Chase, Clapham by Charles Rutherfoord and Rupert Tyler
The very first garden we visited last year on the National Garden Scheme (NGS) was the…
Designer Edibles 1: Peas (Pisum sativum ‘Meteor’)
I’m on a mission to grow as many different species and varieties of plants as possible…
It’s all grow in the Eden community garden
I’ve been really lucky in recent months to be allowed to use a small 2 x 2m…
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Mr Morse’
The plants are still small (they’ve seriously been through the wars after arriving near death!), so…
Pot’s Growing On: 1st April and spring is well underway
After about a year of planning for our garden this year, we’re now able to get…
RHS Wisley in spring
I had two gardening epiphanies on Friday at RHS Wisley (that place gets me with every visit!).…
Pot’s Growing on in March 2015? Keeping seedlings alive and watching the world come to life
With the spring equinox (and a non-existent cloud hidden solar eclipse) done and dusted, Clapham is…
Fuzzy buzz
Buzzy McBuzz
Germination!
Well, I have to hand it to the Garland Super7 Heated propagator. Everything I sow on…
Spring has arrived in Clapham!
Spring definitely hit Clapham this week with days of sun and temperatures high enough to be…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces: Victorian inspiration
Driven by a renewed love of plants and a brain being filled with RHS knowledge, in…
Dividing a Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ plant)
I’ve had a Zamioculcas zamiifolia for some years now. In the last year, I found the…
Sowing seeds, planting clematis and pruning
Today Rumbles was doing cartwheels in the garden trying to catch a fly – the most…
February: exams done, seed sowing starts!
9th of February is a date I’ve had engrained in my mind for the last five…
Urban Legends: Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, inventor of the Wardian Case
Today I discovered we live only 3 minutes walk away from the last residence of one of…
Gardens: a science experiment we can all try
You know what, the Victorians got it right. Curiosity, discovery, understanding the unknown, adventure!
Littlebury Gardens in January
I’m not sure how but it’s almost the end of January! The weather has been very…
Sky Garden at the Walkie Talkie, London
“It’s like being at Kew Gardens in the sky!” exclaimed one visitor – I’d liked to…
[PHOTO GALLERY] 2015 so far
Not a lot going on in the garden right now. I’m planning, planning, planning while also…
Littlebury 2014 Flower Power
2014 was my experimental year in the garden. While everything certainly wasn’t very cohesive, there were…
Hyacinths
Up until this year Hyacinths were a massive no no for me. Too blousy and old…
10 favourite plants of 2014
It’s the last day of 2014 and I’ve been really interested in plants this year (no…
Studying RHS Level 2 Principles of Horticulture
At one point during my emo self-obsessing teenage years I was convinced I was stupid. Then one…
Tip toeing in the footsteps of Darwin at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
This weekend I spent two fun and informative days at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with…
Veggies in the local community garden
I’m super excited right now because I have been very lucky and been given access to…
Shovelling sh*t while the plants still go at it!
October is almost over, so here’s a diary of what’s been going on in Littlebury gardens…
25 Photos of interesting autumn sightings (and what I thought at the time)
Here are 25 things I spotted in September and October that I thought were beautiful for all…
Chelsea Physic Garden in Autumn
Today I made the most of my new Royal Horticultural Society membership and visited the Chelsea…
It’s October and it’s still warm! Bulb planting and drain pipe trellis time
What’s going on with the weather? Although it’s dark by about 6.30pm now, it’s still sunny…
Pests and diseases (vine weevil, slugs, snails and rust)
For every positive in the garden this summer there has been a pest or a disease…
From the streets: who needs a garden to garden?!
I was just moseying around Brighton at lunch and four houses caught my eye down a street…
Clapham garden: Autumn is on the way
Summer is almost over and Autumn is on the way. Many of our new plants are simply…
RHS Wisley Flower Show 2014
Yesterday I went to RHS Wisley for the flower show, in particular the National Dahlia Society’s…
National Dahlia Society Annual Show 2014 at RHS Wisley
It’s not often something knocks my socks off and genuinely makes me say “wow” out loud but then…