I knew East Ruston Old Vicarage in Norfolk would be special. What I hadn’t appreciated is…
Pot’s Growing On: April 2016
Someone pointed out I haven’t done an update about our own garden for a while, clearly I’ve…
My Allotment: Month 5
I’ve had my allotment since December and after a mountain of clearance, weeding, planning and seed…
Review: RHS The Half-Hour Allotment by Lia Leendertz
I was lucky enough to win The Half-Hour Allotment in a competition in the first months of…
Rousham: getting to the heart of landscape garden design
As I arrived at Rousham, the single other visitor was leaving and I had the entire place to…
Dividing a fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)
I want more ferns for our fern wall and some of our ferns are ripe for dividing. After…
March 2016: Allotment woe to propagation pro
March has to be up there in my top three favourite months of the year. Yes…
Getting to grips with grasses
In 2016 I want to get to grips with ornamental grasses. In particular, using them in mixed…
Fernatic: 50 fern species, 1 living wall!
Why we created a diverse 50 species collection of ferns on one modern living wall and how…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces
In 2015 we took part in series two of the BBC’s Big Dreams, Small Spaces presented…
Dahlia experiment: cultivars put to the test!
In late 2013 I discovered Dahlias. As unbelievable as that might sound to gardeners who have grown…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary: A Cat’s View
Miaow there, My name’s Rumbles, short for Mr Rumbleson Aria Wallington-Anderson. I wanted to tell you my…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces: Photo Gallery
These photos were all taken during the filming of Big Dreams, Small Spaces (2015).
The Plant & Flower Database 2015
While we had dreams of a little Victorian neon jungle of a garden, my main personal…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary 4: Finished! (Late Summer)
To cut to the chase, we did it. We had a silly dream that meant everything…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary 5: Autumn – after the show finished
After the show was over we were sad to see everyone go. It was so much…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary 3: Summer (June – August)
June was a pretty great month for the garden. All of the ground work was done, things…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary 2: Spring (March – May)
With the start of March came the news we were in! Big Dreams, Small Spaces was…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces Diary 1: Winter (January – Feb 2015)
In 2015 we took part in Big Dreams, Small Spaces. Find out how it all happened…
Big Dreams, Small Spaces: The Plan
This page summarises the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind the dream for our Victorian London botanist inspired, overgrown neon jungle of…
Photo Gallery: My favourite garden design inspiration from my travels
This gallery contains a selection of my favourite garden design from 2014 and 2015. Photos are…
Pot’s Growing On in January: indoor plants, seed catalogues and preparation
January is the time to get organised, wash pots carefully to kill nasties, enjoy browsing the…
My Allotment: month 1 – preparation and planning
I’ve had access to my allotment for a month now giving me time to assess it,…
Top 6 Best Bee Magnet Flowers of 2015
One of my top priorities for 2015 was to have a garden grown as a nature reserve,…
My Allotment: Weeding
Today I had my first proper session at the allotment and I’d say that for the…
I have an allotment!
After a year of trying, this has all happened quite quickly: I have an allotment! 125…
Book Review: Plant Lover’s Guide to Salvias
I can’t remember when or how I discovered Salvias, but last year I bought a few…
All hail Helleborus niger leaves!
Back at the start of 2014, when my love of gardening ignited and shot off like…
8 tips for buying a Christmas tree
Christmas trees are brilliant. However the way they are sold can be a bit wasteful, cost…
Planting spring bulbs – tulips, snowdrops, fritillaria and alliums
This year I’m planting my spring bulbs for the spring White Garden in three stages:
Autumn at Kew Gardens
It feels like Kew Gardens is upping its garden design efforts – or perhaps I’m just…
Pot’s Growing On in October 2015? Bulb planting, removing plants and adding new ones!
As the nights draw in and the temperatures turn colder, there’s a sudden sense that the…
Pot’s Growing On: cuttings to overwinter
Today I took softwood cuttings of a few plants in order to overwinter them more easily…
A reason why the London Garden Bridge might be a good thing
The London Garden Bridge is fairly hotly debated. On the face of it, a tree lined…
Solenostemon scuttelarioides (aka Coleus)
Victorian’s freakin’ loved a lot of plants. They thought plants were cool. Because plants are cool.…
Planting Galanthus nivalis bulbs (Snowdrops)
Today I planted 50 x Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop) bulbs and 9 x Fritillaria meleagris ‘Alba’ bulbs.…
Book Review: Succession Planting for Adventurous Gardeners by Christopher Lloyd
As a novice gardener, there are gardening concepts we all struggle with (dappled shade vs light…
Avoid damping off during indoor propagation
If I can offer any tips for indoor propagation on a small scale, it’s do a small…
Review: Garland Super 7 electric heated windowsill propagator
To keep this review simple: it works, it’s £25, buy it. If you want to know more,…
Planning the winter/spring white garden
Last year I attempted a ‘spring white garden’. Bit of a disaster. I was aiming for white…
Whoops, bought two mini succulents
Uh oh, what’s going on here? Two little succulents seem to have popped into my bag…
Review: Garland Grow Light Garden
Being an impatient so and so occasionally, last winter I couldn’t wait to get sowing and…
One amazing gardening year
Warning: look away now if you don’t want to read self-reflective pointless twaddle. Exactly a year…
Book Review: RHS Complete Gardener’s Manual
Without doubt, the RHS Complete Gardener’s Manual is one of the best bargains I’ve picked up…
Review: RHS Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers by Christopher Brickell
The RHS Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers is what you call a tome. It is vast.
Review: The Complete Gardener by Monty Don
The word ‘complete’ has never been so accurately used. What I love about Monty Don is…
National Dahlia Society Annual Show 2015 & RHS Dahlia Trials
I returned to the National Dahlia Society’s Annual Show today after being totally gobsmacked last year. Though…