Marvellous Montreuil

The front door or the porch are the very first elements of a home that come into play for welcoming one and all, and that’s why they must be appealing and of course, beautiful to look at. But over the years, things seem to lose their curb appeal and get all worn out and old. However, just a few steps of creative makeover can add new life to the same. Here are 25 Marvelous Curb Appeal Ideas That Can Rejuvenate Your Home With Gorgeousness.

The last couple of days of warm weather has everything bursting into bloom – yesterday I was admiring a trio of irises and today I looked up and saw that the mimosa is starting to open its little yellow pompoms.

Jo Malone London, the new garden is Blooming Marvellous Instead of spending a large fortune on a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, Jo Malone Ltd has funded the restoration of the now beautiful Old English Garden in Battersea Park. The garden is a social project done in conjunction Thrive’s Growing 4 Life project that helps people with physical or mental health challenges gain recognised horticultural qualifications.

Trulli Marvellous Nigel Dunnett’s Blue Water Garden is an interesting working of an old idea – the harvesting and use of water to create a green oasis in the driest of places.  The building is based on the trulli of the Puglia region of southern Italy, the water rills echo the paradise gardens of ancient Persia and the planting was inspired by the dry meadows of south eastern Europe.  It felt very different to many of the other gardens – fresher, crisper and with more vibrant colour contrasts.  With the warm weather I’m sure the orange martagon lilies will be looking better and better as the week progresses.  The roof of the trulli has been made without any mortar – a real work of art.

It’s Looking Marvellous at Merriments I’ve just returned from Merriments Nursery (Hurst Green, East Sussex) where I was preparing for a guided walk I’m giving with Helen Yemm (from the Telegraph) this Saturday May 3rd as part of National Nurseries Week. Helen will be talking about plant combinations and I will be encouraging those attending (and everyone else) to plant pollinator friendly plants.

We spent the final couple of days of our visit to Cyprus in the Troodos Mountains where snow was still lying on the highest areas. We scrunched through it to find Crocus cyprius pushing up through the pine needles.

George’s Marvellous Garden This garden based on the Roald Dahl story involved the children learning traditional skills as well as gardening and incorporated many recycled objects. The spoon water feature was really inspired and very eye catching.

I do love the Malvern Show, especially now that the showground has been revamped so that the Hills create a wonderful backdrop to the show gardens. In the past the Hills were at your back when you looked at the gardens – a basic no-no of garden design which always encourages use of the ‘borrowed view’. The only photo I have of this is a hill just visible  over the Villagio Verde garden. As ever, there was

I was on a nature walk near my home and my pant leg was grabbed by a tenacious Himalayan blackberry. I cursed the evil cane as I unhooked it from my pants and plucked an errant thorn free.A few minutes later, I found a native blackberry, so I snapped a few pic