Small garden design: consider how you will use your outdoor space

What’s most important to you and your small garden: planting? A place to sit? A place…

Small garden design: become familiar with your outdoor space

For twenty years I lived in small flats with the tiniest (and often non-existent!) outdoor spaces,…

How to grow ferns from spores

Ferns are very easy to grow from spores and although it takes a number of years,…

How to coppice hazel for bean poles and pea stick supports

Hazel’s true name is Corylus avellana, it’s one of our best known wild trees all across…

How to grow pink oyster mushrooms without plastic

I’ve recently been getting into growing edible mushrooms at home, including the delicious lion’s mane fungi.…

10 steps to choosing plants like a pro for your garden

If you’re starting to think about new plants for your garden, as I am, my best…

Infected cuts and bites from gardening

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS SOME GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF AN INFECTED BITE On Tuesday, during a photoshoot…

Review: Netatmo home weather station

When we first bought our old flat and garden in London way back in 2013, Chris…

From West Yorkshire to Pembrokeshire (via East Sussex) and back, with everything in between

For our summer holiday this year Chris and I spent most of the week in Tenby,…

How to remove ground elder organically

I love lots of plants people call weeds (see my book) but there are some plants…

Lady’s slipper orchid, Cypripedium calceolus

It’s been a long time coming but this year I visited one of the reintroduction programme…

The Farm, Yorkshire

In February 2021 Chris and I found ourselves moving to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire where…

11 Things at Chelsea Flower Show 2023

It feels like the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has finally found its feet again after having…

Peat free plants at Tissington Nursery, Peak District

“People come to us specifically because we grow in peat free compost,” says Mairi Longdon, who…

How to create carpets of colour, Cluny House Gardens, Scotland

One sunny afternoon in late-April, while working on a remote landscape design in Scotland, I took…

Early spring flowering plants at Stillingfleet Lodge Garden and Nursery, York

Stillingfleet Lodge, on the outskirts of York, is a garden that has been managed organically for…

How to grow organic tomatoes including heirloom tomatoes

Tomatoes sit atop everyone’s grow your own lists, and if they don’t, they should! Relatively easy…

How to grow Lysimachia atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais’ from seed

A number of years ago RHS Chelsea Flower Show was filled with a new flower, Lysimachia…

How to prune salvias and when to do it – three pruning groups

A group of plants I grow a lot in my own garden and in my clients’…

How to grow hardwood cuttings

Hardwood cuttings are an easy way of taking pieces of woody stem of shrubs, some trees…

How to grow onions and shallots organically from seed

Growing onions and shallots organically from seed is easy, cheap and fun. In this post I…

How to grow Brussels sprouts organically and cook them

I used to have a mild apathy toward Brussels sprouts, boiled and soggy, I can’t say…

Allotment plan 2023

We took on our new allotment in Yorkshire in February 2021 and, with almost two full…

Sustainable plant nurseries

I have always bought my plants from as many independent nurseries as I can, the passionate,…

The importance and benefits of keeping fallen leaves around plants

One of the pieces of advice the gardening world has got wrong over the years is…

Why it’s time to ban non-organic pesticides from sale to the general public

Please take 30 seconds to sign the petition When I first started studying horticulture professionally in…

Horticulture industry bans corporations digging up precious habitats to make compost

The Government has, at long last, banned the home use of compost made from precious peatland…

Review: Wikomo solar deer repeller

We live surrounded by fields and woodland in which lots of roe deer live. Deer have…

8 tips for better watering technique

1) Water deeply When it’s hot and sunny it’s tempting to zip around the garden watering…

Moths

Jack on lawns: why it’s time to rethink our most sustainable usable surface

I seem to be thinking about lawns more than is healthy, and I’m not the only…

Can we learn from British Columbia’s attitude to wildlife?

Chris and I have just come back from a two week trip around the south west…

Book review: Regenesis: feeding the world without devouring the planet by George Monbiot

The first thing that struck me about Regenesis is one third of the book’s pages are…

Why I will no longer be drawn into the false narrative on peat free compost

I will no longer be drawn into the false narrative on peat free vs peat compost…

Review: Husqvarna 540i XP battery powered chainsaw

Last year I was given a battery powered chainsaw by Husqvarna to try for a no…

Imagining a garden

Yesterday I sat at dusk looking out from the top of our garden across the valley,…

Gardening elbow

I’ve overdone it. Last week I injured my right arm just as the gardening season is…

How to grow dahlias from cuttings

Dahlias are remarkably easy plants to grow once you get to know them. One of the…

Allotment plan 2022

In our first year on the smallholding in some respects I should have done nothing but…

Californian superbloom

In March 2019 Chris and I were in California visiting a couple of our good friends.…

How to multiply snowdrops like a pro – planting and dividing

Snowdrops are one of my favourite flowers in the garden, the regular Galanthus nivalis is about…

How gardening and nature help me cope with stress and anxiety

This is a topic I find difficult to put into words. I’ve been putting it off…

Adapting an established garden

When we moved to Yorkshire we inherited a beautiful mature garden and key to that is…

Review: Spear & Jackson Traditional Stainless garden tools

I was given a set of Spear & Jackson’s Traditional Stainless series of garden tools to…

Key features of our new Premiere Polytunnel

I’m really excited because we’ve been given one of Premiere Polytunnels premiere range products and I…

January gardening ideas: mid-winter (month two)

I love winter, especially on cold crisp days when the world can be seen with such…

February gardening ideas: end of winter (month three)

I really love the end weeks of winter, which in the UK is February and very…

March gardening ideas: signs of spring (month four)

You know spring is on its way as daylight hours lengthen, temperatures warm and while the…

April gardening ideas: spring is here (month five)

In the UK, Easter weekend is my marker in the year when I know everything needs…

May gardening ideas: end of spring (month six)

May is the month when all plants start growing rapidly, resulting in lush, immaculate leaves. Everything…