Dispatch from the Pumpkin Patch

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When I started this project I had grand ideas of reconnecting with nature and deepening my knowledge of local wildlife and biodiversity. I daydreamed that my garden would be a haven for bumblebees and butterflies, and I would enjoy spending time there, reading, drinking wine and admiring my work. Picture me barefoot in flowy dresses ...how naive I was!

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Do you ever look out at your garden from indoors and wish the views from the windows were nicer, rather than only noticing how it looks when you are out there in the middle of it?

It just isn’t summer in the northeast without Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) tearing through raspberries, roses, and other plants gardeners tend to hold near and dear.Their voracious appetite is matched in intensity with an innate difficulty to e

The Best of the Rest from the Show Gardens

I’m a regular and enthusiastic visitor to this lovely nursery and I have watched progress with interest since Emma and Monty Davies took it over seven years ago. Like many previously productive walled gardens, it had fallen into dereliction and its thirteen 19th century Foster & Pearson glasshouses were in varying states of collapse and decay. The couple were determined to rescue them and th

In my earlier post about Sir Paul Smith, I wrote about the role of green as the anchor that holds everything in place in a garden – so it’s unsurprising that the greenness was what I noticed as I looked at some of the drawings of this year’s Chelsea gardens. No doubt, when we get to Chelsea our eyes will seek out the excitement, and the actual gardens will be further enlivened by shape, texture and the play of light, but it is useful to see the contribution that green makes to each of the gardens and bear it in mind for the planting in our own garden. Jo Thompson’s Sylvan Retreat will h

There is no point in growing salads at ground level in our garden – they disappear overnight as platoons of slugs and snails emerge from their hiding places in walls and terraces to feast on my efforts. Rather than spend a fortune on wool pellets and nematodes (I keep these for other crops) I grow my salads in containers that can be kept out of their reach. In the kitchen courtyard where I like

Learning from the Experts Visiting a famous garden is not just (generally) a delightful experience – it can also be a masterclass in good gardening techniques. On my recent visit to Sissinghurst I was particularly impressed by the way that the evergreen Magnolia remained tight to the wall that it was growing against.

This is a bit of a challenge this week – I’m tempted to just post several pictures of our new Bengal-cross kitten Titus and go for the aah-factor – but  given that the weather might get worse I’m going to keep those on hold for the time being. ..

Here are some cool and thoughtful Design Tricks You Can Learn from These Balcony Gardens to make the best use of limited space while displaying plants beautifully!