Allotment Month 33: today is a good day

This was the best day on the allotment all year, a breeze and drizzle, the air warm, everything quiet and the world relaxed.

From the streets: Porto – city of fusion

Chris and I have been staying in Porto, neither of us having been to Portugal before. An old but very modern city with the riv

Real millennial gardens

Some of my biggest gardening inspiration comes from friends who I wouldn’t have expected to love growing stuff. They lov

Pot’s Growing On: creating space, sunflower for foliage and ornamental aubergine

Stepping out into our garden one morning this week was different. Not least because we had 1.2cm of rain last weekend, literal

Easily multiply your Solenostemon with midsummer cuttings

By July Solenostemon should be growing rapidly and, with the foliage types, it’s often useful to pinch them out to encou

Allotment month 32: cool as a cucurbit, hot as a herbal

2018 will go down as one of the most challenging years for gardeners, the freezing late blast followed by an immediate and tot

Fibrex Nurseries, Warwickshire

If you’re into ferns you’ll certainly have heard of Fibrex Nurseries, they also hold the national collections for

Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens

Last week Chris and I popped to the New Forest for a couple of days and on the way back we passed the Sir Harold Hillier Arbor

How to grow Monarda didyma

Monarda didyma ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ can be seen flowering in our garden in the above photo (2015) and below (2018). This ye

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 Bombay Sapphire Distillery in Laverstock, Whitchurch.

How to make a micro wildlife pond in a pot

When we open our garden for charity on the National Garden Scheme one thing people always comment on is our micro pond with it

10 no nonsense tips to jazz up your small city garden this summer

Ah, waking up to summer in the city. The sound of sirens and drunk people ringing your doorbell at 5am birds chirping. You rea

Allotment month 31: here come the crops – gherkins, kohlrabi, edible flowers and more

After months of hard work, today the allotment is starting to give up its bounty with lots of produce now finally ready for th

How to grow Lysimachia atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais’ from seed

A couple of years ago RHS Chelsea Flower Show was filled with a new flower, Lysimachia atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais’.

Come into my world

People have asked me a lot why I write recently and I don’t really know the answer but I think it’s something to do with n

Gutted Clandon Park house open again to the public

“It’s the most real National Trust we’ve been to,” Chris sums up exactly how I felt about Clandon Park

1 Trend at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018

This year Chelsea actually felt slightly out of sync for me, so much was right but my heart wasn’t stolen. The show was

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 the myth that you ca

57 Photos of RHS Chelsea Press Day

Photographs by Christopher Anderson (Twitter / Instagram).

26 things at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018

The consensus so far from people at RHS Chelsea? “This is a good ‘un”. Variety is the spice of life and vari

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 – first impressions

This year I’ve spent a couple of days mooching about RHS Chelsea Flower Show during construction. It’s a reminder

Review: Stihl FSA-56 strimmer

My review of the 36V Stihl FSA-56 strimmer, currently available for between £130 – 170 online, tested for the last mont

Allotment Month 30: a close look at 2018’s plan

How I’m into month 30 on my allotment blows my mind. I’ve made reasonable progress in that time, looking back at 

Arts and Crafts at Hidcote

It’s been on my list of gardens to visit for as long as I can remember. Chris and I finally stepped out the car at Hidco

Pot’s Growing On in May: self-seeding, hardy outdoor cactus and propagating tricky seeds

If I did nothing to our garden this year it would become an Echium, Allium, Ricinus, Verbena and Fennel jungle – these s

50 Dahlia photos from my garden and allotment

As you may have heard, I love Dahlias (see more Dahlia posts here), they rock my flowery world. Below is a selection of those

Orchidize

One day there will come a moment when I’ll have seen all of the species of native wild orchids. I’m not sure how I

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 Rosanna Ryan at the Parish Church of

Copper tape – it works

People who’ve been to our garden always ask how I keep my Hostas safe from slugs and snails. I use a mini armoury of mea

My garden, my lifeblood

I’ve just stepped back inside from the first quiet couple of hours in our garden this spring. Sitting there in a tshirt

Pot’s Growing On: white flowers, propagation and sempervivum

It’s finally spring proper and our garden is growing again in the most spectacular way. The fastest grower has been our

Pulsatilla vulgaris

Finally, after many years, today I came up close and personal with one of my favourite plants growing and flowering in the wil

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 in Vauxhall this time last y

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 popping up as the area regenerates, like the

And it was all yellow

When I first started seriously geeking out on gardening I kept reading again and again that “yellow is banished from gar

Pot’s growing on in March: spring bulbs start turning up to the party

My biggest delight so far this month is the success of our perennial spring bulbs. Given the extreme cold weather this year I&

Oh Beehave!

I was pottering around outside today in our little urban garden and while watering the ferns I spotted that little badger up t

Allotment Month 28: harvesting parsnips, beating weeds, sowing seeds and signs of spring (at last!)

Currently I feel I have the measure of my allotment, how long that feeling will last remains to be seen.

Behind-the-scenes of McBean’s Orchids, Sussex

“We’re going in!” I hit the car breaks, indicated and abruptly swerved into the driveway. “ORCHIDSR

Robot lawn mowers, battery operated gardening tools and other tech at the Garden Press Event

I attended the Garden Press Event for the first time this year and it was a wonderful meet-up for the gardening bloggers, jour

Houseplant trends: the bigger the better

Over the last few years we’ve seen an explosion of interest in houseplants, largely driven by Instagram. As people’

Surviving: checking the damage caused during the coldest week in eight years

The week during Storm Emma – the coldest week in our garden in eight years – was one of the most worrying weeks I&

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 now to add a little sparkle

Mossy Rock (part two)

I know what you’re thinking moss fans, will he shut up about that bloomin rock what’s happening with Mossy Rock? Well, goo

Fleeting flowers

The joy of the snowdrop, cherry blossom and tulip. The fritillary and daffodil, the allium and poppy. Momentary pops of colour

Collecting seeds from Leonotis nepetifolia

Over the last few years I’ve been growing Leonotis nepetifolia (thanks to Jonathan Gregson for correcting the species in

Pot’s growing on in February: Hellebores, Snowdrops and vigorous perennials forcing changes

It’s been three years since we set up our garden. For the first time a large number of plants have multiplied so much th

How to make an Aeonium arboreum branch (Part Two)

A year ago I experimented with nipping out the growing point of my Aeonium ‘Zwartkop‘ to make it branch. It worke

Spring is in the air in London

In the air but importantly, not quite here. Yet on mild sunny days the signs of spring are all around us and, here in London a

Dr Nathaniel Ward’s Clapham home and garden to be demolished imminently

Three years ago almost to the day I wrote this blog post about discovering the existence of Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward’s