What’s most important to you and your small garden: planting? A place to sit? A place…
Garden design
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…
11 Things at Chelsea Flower Show 2023
It feels like the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has finally found its feet again after having…
What we can learn from the best urban street plantings
Our parks, streets and town centres used to be filled with displays of annual flowers, but…
Littlebury Road through 2020
This year is a difficult one for all of us in many unexpected ways, through it…
Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill
This is one garden I have wanted to visit for many years, Perch Hill, home to…
Why don’t we talk more about patterns in gardens?
I find patterns in gardens fascinating (so much so I wrote a book about them) and…
Come into my world: haphazard
On my allotment two years ago I started increasing the number of ornamental plants because I…
A right hodgepodge
Regular readers may recall that about two years ago I started planting spare cuttings, divisions and…
From the streets: Bonnington Square, Vauxhall in Autumn
Last Sunday I gave myself the morning off writing projects and decided to visit Bonnington Square…
First day on the RHS Persicaria Trial
Today was a really exciting day for me as it was the first assessment of the…
Future experiments: flowers and insects
Last autumn I started planting up one end of my allotment to create a new freestyle…
Large communal roof terrace in Fulham, London
This design had some particular challenges including craning a number of tonnes of top soil onto…
Oudolf Field at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset
I’ve been wanting to visit the Hauser & Wirth art gallery in Somerset to see garden…
Small garden design in Clapham, London
Over time the planting in this garden will grow to hide almost all of the fences…
Large garden design in Clapham, London
Recently finished and planted, in this large family garden in Clapham, London I lowered a third…
Current project: garden redesign in Clapham, London
This garden already had a strong layout with some established trees and shrubs, though some of…
Current project: Belsize Park, London
The owner is having an architect designed extension to the house making the garden slightly smaller.…
Garden design with studio in Braughing, Hertfordshire
This quaint cottage in Braughing had recently been tastefully renovated by its new owners with a…
Living wall design in Camberwell, London
This garden was already well established with a collection of tree fern species viewed through huge…
Front garden design in Clapham, London
This challenging north facing front garden is in full shade and was previously a patch of…
One World stand at Chelsea Flower Show 2019
This year at Chelsea Flower Show I was lucky to be asked by One World to…
14 Things at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019
It’s thoroughly enjoyable at Chelsea Flower Show this year. I’ve placed bets (in my head) on…
Future Meadow: Winter One
The race to grow is primal in all living things. One of the challenges of planting…
Cassa de Serralves, Porto
Earlier this year Chris and I visited Porto, Portugal and during the trip popped to the…
Future Meadow: Autumn One
A seasonal journal of my new experimental planting design I’ve started something that is at one…
Living on a prairie (part 2)
It’s been two years since I started a prairie experiment in a small border on my…
Is this the year we fell in love with Symphyotrichum? Photos from Sussex Prairies
This Autumn everyone I speak to has discovered a love of Symphyotrichum. Or should I say,…
How established should a newly planted garden design be?
When you’re having your garden designed, it’s understandable to want plants to look as established as…
Bombay Sapphire Distillery: making gin from herbs and other botanicals amidst jaw dropping design
Chris and I popped to the New Forest for a night and stopped at the new…
1 Trend at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018
This year Chelsea actually felt slightly out of sync for me, so much was right but…
11 Chelsea plant combinations you can try at home
Like my 15 Sensational Plantings to Recreate from Chelsea article last year I’m hoping to breakdown…
26 things at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018
The consensus so far from people at RHS Chelsea? “This is a good ‘un”. Variety is…
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 – first impressions
This year I’ve spent a couple of days mooching about RHS Chelsea Flower Show during construction.…
The 99 Topiary Yew Trees of St. Mary’s church in Painswick, Cotswolds
At the weekend Chris and I attended the most beautiful wedding of our friends George and…
From the streets: Nine Elms Lane, Vauxhall urban planting
I first noticed the unusual oval shaped flower beds along the recently redeveloped Nine Elms Lane…
From the streets: American Embassy prairie garden – first winter
Chris and I often walk to Vauxhall from our Clapham flat to visit the new things…
12 plants that add COLOUR-POW to your garden in winter
If your garden doesn’t look something like the above right now, it’s time to act! Plan…
12 Photos that shaped my year
The last twelve months have given me the chance to explore my design likes and dislikes…
10 moments of exotic garden genius in Kent
One of the most enjoyable days for me this year was visiting my friend Philip Oostenbrink,…
DAHLIAGEDDON
It’s mid-November and some of our Dahlias in the garden are still flowering, just. This follows…
At the end of the earth, plants – Prospect Cottage, Dungeness
An upfront confession: I’ve never seen nor heard of any of Derek Jarman’s films. A film director…
15 sensational plant combinations you can try at home from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017
One of my bugbears around Chelsea time are the naysayers proclaiming the gardens are unrealistic and…
23 things at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017
The Chelsea Flower Show is nuts. People on stilts dressed only in flowers, cactus jackets, astro…
James Basson’s road to ‘best in show’ at Chelsea Flower Show 2017
There are some garden designers we see at RHS shows regularly. James Basson is one that came…
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 – Press Day Highlights
It’s hard to take in the brain blitz that is the Chelsea Flower Show in one day…
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 – what to expect?
In a few weeks the above Chelsea grounds will be filled with the wonders of the…
Marrakesh (Part Five): Le Jardin Secret by Tom Stuart-Smith
One tip I’d like to share is: do not visit more than two gardens in one…