Back in January I passed the fairly significant personal milestone of the five year anniversary since…
Jack Wallington
I'm an RHS qualified garden designer living in Clapham, London who loves growing plants and designing with them. Follow me on Twitter.
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…
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…
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…
Jack on composts: 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,…
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…
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…
June gardening ideas: summer (month seven)
Summer! Well, if the weather behaves. It often feels like summer has stop-started into action at…
July gardening ideas: mid summer (month eight)
I like to think of midsummer’s eve, the summer solstice, as the top of a mountain…
August gardening ideas: high summer (month nine)
Late-July and August will always be ‘real summer’ to me, with the hottest heatwaves, the driest…
September gardening ideas: end of summer (month ten)
Throughout my life, people have described, without fail, sunny spells in September as an Indian summer.…
October gardening ideas: autumn (month eleven)
There is no denying that autumn is upon us as the shorter days bring colder weather,…
November gardening ideas: start of winter (month twelve)
It’s a tale of two parts to November; the first half can feel a lot like…