It’s 2023! Garden-wise January can be a bit of a grim month. Everything looks brown and soggy and the days are still very short and usually cold, offering far fewer opportunities to get outside and do anything more than tidying up fallen leaves or cut down decaying stalks. I do always get strangely excited aboutContinue reading “New Year, new blog post, new garden plans”
Category Archives: Garden design
Make your hens at home in the garden
Owning a flock of hens doesn’t have to mean bare lawns and patchy plants. Your chicken coop can be an eye-catching feature, or blend into the background – and you don’t have to sacrifice your lawn for your feathered friends either. Let’s have a look at how to keep chickens in the garden without compromisingContinue reading “Make your hens at home in the garden”
Quadgrow trial – part 1
Let’s talk tomatoes. At the beginning of this year’s growing season I was lucky enough to be sent a Quadgrow planter, after spotting them at this year’s Garden Press Event in London (back when we are able to travel freely around the country – remember those days?!). I was really impressed with the set upContinue reading “Quadgrow trial – part 1”
A good year for the roses?
Roses are the quintessential country garden plant – they’re a symbol of royalty and romance, celebrated in art, and even flavour our food. For some, they’re an essential element of a good garden, while others find them old-fashioned or fussy. It’s true that some roses can demand a little extra care, but there are soContinue reading “A good year for the roses?”
Cosmos – out of this world!
No garden should be without cosmos and its heavenly flowers. After a bit of a slow start with these brightly-coloured blooms, I’ve become a convert, and now I sow them from seed every year to ensure I’ve got plenty of these cheery favourites to brighten up my borders. Cosmos bipinnatus are half-hardy annuals, which means,Continue reading “Cosmos – out of this world!”
Garden Goodies @ GPE 2020
Last week I attended the Garden Press Event in London for the first time – this is an event organised to allow the horticulture industry to come together so that journalists can view the latest products, find out about new campaigns and generally share information and news. It was a whistlestop tour of all theContinue reading “Garden Goodies @ GPE 2020”
Time to plan…
It’s winter, but it’s not cold. Little green shoots are appearing – but they’re too early. Hellebores are emerging, the witch hazel is blooming and we even have a couple of snowdrops almost fully out in the front garden. It’s SpringWinter – not cold enough to be properly winter but not light enough to beContinue reading “Time to plan…”
September Stars
It seems I have a late summer garden – there’s more colour on show in September than there has been during the rest of the year. The front garden is currently showing off all its colours – yellows, pinks, peachy dahlias and flashes of reds from the crocosmia, roses and even a few second-flowering geums. Continue reading “September Stars”
Playing the long game…
Gardening is a lesson in playing the long game. I’m a quick-fix, instant-gratification type of person, so my growing love of the garden has brought with it an appreciation for taking things a bit slower. For taking the long view and planning ahead for the same season, the next season, the next year, the nextContinue reading “Playing the long game…”
#TBT to Chelsea Flower Show 2018
As it’s Thursday, and I didn’t have the time to write about it at the time, here’s my own little summary of the joyous day I spent at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018! This was my first ever visit to the show and it’s fair to say I was excited. Very excited. The event livedContinue reading “#TBT to Chelsea Flower Show 2018”
Back garden planning…
It’s time to concentrate on the back garden for a while. I’ve been turning my attention to planning the front borders up until now because there’s just so much bare soil out there. I now have this space three-quarters planned – there’s just one corner I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with yet. I’veContinue reading “Back garden planning…”
Sow many seeds…so many seedlings
I’ve been on a sowing frenzy. Although I work part time and theoretically have two days each week to spend in the garden/greenhouse doing lots of lovely gardening…it never usually works out that way. Family/work/home responsibilities often creep into this time and so I have to grab gardening opportunities with both hands and make theContinue reading “Sow many seeds…so many seedlings”
A total redesign
These are scary words! A TOTAL REDESIGN of the front garden. This means digging, moving, sowing, replanting, more digging, weeding, propagating… I can’t wait. We’ve lived here for three years now and I have tweaked the front garden only slightly each year. It’s been good to wait and live with the garden for a while. Continue reading “A total redesign”
Monkeying around…
I’m really quite pleased with this weekend’s main gardening project – moving my monkey puzzle tree. Actually I’m really quite pleased to have been in the garden at all – it’s been ages. Pre-Christmas, Christmas and post-Christmas did not leave much time to get outside and tackle winter gardening jobs, and when there was aContinue reading “Monkeying around…”
Bittersweet peas
I’m having a love/hate relationship with sweet peas. Actually that’s not strictly true – I love them really, but I hate the way they make me sneeze. I’m growing lots of different varieties this year and although it’s now September and Autumn is definitely peeking its head round the corner, they’re still going strong inContinue reading “Bittersweet peas”
Julianne Robertson 