November is a wonderful time to head outdoors in search of seed heads, pine cones, interesting stems and fallen branches to create stunning indoor decorations for Christmas.
Honesty (Lunaria annua) seed heads are called silicules. As a whole they may appear a little drab, but gently flex Honesty seed capsules between your fingers and the outer casing will peel off and reveal the elegant beauty of Lunaria annua.
A favourite with garden designers, every year Angelica archangelica is one of the most admired and coveted plants at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in May. This is the perfect time to sow Angelica archangelica seeds; don’t miss out on this opportunity to introduce this glamorous and statuesque plant to your garden or allotment!
There’s no need to mess around with pots or compost, as Angelica archangelica become rather resentful if their roots are disturbed; therefore, sowing seeds directly where you want your plants to grow is both the easiest and most successful option.
I was both excited and incredibly relieved when I heard that the National Trust had purchased Munstead Wood, the Surrey home and eleven-acre garden of the legendary horticulturist, designer, writer, artist, photographer, and craftswoman, Gertrude Jekyll.
Gertrude lived at Munstead Wood in Busbridge, Godalming, from the 1890s until her death in 1932. Having met the renowned architect Edwin Lutyens early in his career, long before he achieved fame and was knighted, Gertrude invited Edwin to design her an Arts and Crafts house to complement the garden.
Meadows epitomise the picturesque idyllic summer garden that so many of us dream of. However, creating a successful meadow is often more of a challenging project than we anticipate. Whether you’re creating a new meadow or fixing a failed meadow, August and September are the months that meadow gardeners must spring into action!
Preparation is the key to success. It’s easy to rush soil preparations, giddy with the excitement of sowing seeds – this is where most people fail.
Hello and welcome to my wildlife pond in winter. We’ve had a light sprinkling of snow here in Surrey just a few moments ago, which was very exciting!
Since my last update, my wildlife pond has changed considerably as the plants’ foliage has died back and retreated. What once was a lush, leafy sanctuary is still just as important a refuge for wildlife, but this area is now resting until springtime.
Hello and welcome to my wildlife pond in September! Since my last update, we’ve gone from one extreme to the other – from drought – to a stormy week of thunder, lightening, and heavy rain; followed by more rain over the last two weeks. My pond (and water butts and water tanks) are all full to the brim!
At this time of year, foxglove flowers pulsate with the relaxing, soothing sound of summer, as bees hum happily whilst they disappear in and out of the tubular flowers.
Foxgloves are superb plants for bees; they’re fantastic plants for gardeners, too! These obliging plants are self-supporting and rarely need any assistance. Water your seedlings in dry weather until they’ve settled in; once they’re established, foxgloves are fairly drought tolerant and slug resistant.
Summer has finally arrived! Hello and welcome to my wildlife pond in summertime. It’s so lovely to be able to share my wildlife pond with you through these updates; I am looking forward to taking you on a tour of the aquatic and herbaceous plants growing in this area of my garden.
I remember heading out on a sunny day in May, some years ago now. My new raised bed was completed, so I was heading over to my allotment, filled with excitement and armed with an open packet of Hesperis matronalis var. albiflora seeds. Somewhat comically, I tripped up en route, throwing myself and the entire contents of my seed packet down onto my neighbour, Caroline’s allotment.
I am so grateful for my little pond; this small area of water attracts many insects to our garden. As well as planting up my pond with aquatic plants that live in water, I’ve planted the narrow border around my pond with garden plants that will attract bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and other insects. If you’re interested in growing plants for bees and butterflies, you won’t need a pond or a boggy area of ground to grow these garden plants – they grow in regular garden soil – my plants are growing in free draining, sandy soil; so I’ve chosen mostly drought tolerant plants.
I adore spending time immersed in nature, studying plants and butterflies. Today I wanted to tell you about the Big Butterfly Counts I’ve taken at Bookham Common, in Surrey.
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count runs from Friday the 17th July 2020 until Sunday 9th August 2020 – so you still have plenty of time to join in and enjoy taking your own Butterfly Count!
Welcome to the second part of my overview of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019. (If you missed the first part of my Chelsea overview, click here to see the first instalment.)
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show is the world’s most prestigious flower show. Held in the Royal Hospital’s grounds, at Chelsea, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a great place to find inspiration and ideas for your home and garden.
Last year, HRH the Duchess of Cambridge began a collaboration with Chartered Landscape Architects and Designers, Andrée Davies and Adam White, (from Davies White Ltd), to work on a design for the RHS Back to Nature Garden; a Feature Garden, that was especially designed, for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019.
A highlight of the horticultural calendar, the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show runs from Tuesday 21st May 2019, to Saturday 25th May 2019.
In preparation for the show, over the past three weeks, award winning garden designers, together with their teams, made up of some of the best landscape architects, project managers, builders, technicians, horticulturalists, artists, and crafts people, have been working tirelessly to transform the Royal Hospital’s grounds at Chelsea, into a plant filled oasis.
I adored the dreamy quintessential country cottage garden that Mark Gregory designed and built for the Yorkshire Tourist Board, at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show. I was utterly charmed both by Mark’s design and the quality of the construction of this idyllic garden.
I wasn’t the only one to fall in love with Mark’s 2018 Chelsea garden: the RHS judges presented the Welcome to Yorkshire Garden with a Gold Medal and the Best Construction Award; while the public voted the Yorkshire Garden as the winner of the People’s Choice Award.
I have been waiting for this moment for some time now! I spoke to David Neale in 2015 about his ambition and aspiration to design and build a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, so I was really excited when David told me that he would be building a show garden for the 2018 RHS Chelsea Flower Show! I have now visited David at the Chelsea Flower Show, I am so happy to tell you, that the Silent Pool Gin Garden was awarded a Silver-Gilt Medal by the RHS judges at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018!
I interviewed Surrey based Garden Designer David Neale, of NealeRichards Garden Design, for the November 2015 edition of Vantage Point Magazine. During this interview David Neale spoke about his hopes for the future, and his ambition to design and build a garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I caught up with David earlier this year, when I was thrilled to discover that David’s dreams have come true!
The Telegraph Garden was designed by Andy Sturgeon and built by Crocus. The RHS judges presented The Telegraph Garden with a Gold Medal, and the coveted award of Best in Show.
Remembering the sense of awe and wonderment that he felt visiting The National History Museum, for the first time as a child, Andy Sturgeon has used his childhood memories as the inspiration for his design for The Telegraph Garden.
The Telegraph Garden was designed by Andy Sturgeon and built by Crocus. The garden was sponsored by The Daily Telegraph. The Royal Horticultural Society judges awarded The Telegraph Garden a Gold Medal, and the coveted award of Best in Show, at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016.
The Marble and Granite Centre – Antithesis of Sarcophagi was designed by Martin Cook and Gary Breeze, and built by Chris Holland Landscapes. This Fresh Garden was sponsored by The Marble and Granite Centre Ltd. This is a thought provoking garden, a cube garden – a garden within a cube; one that you have to get up close to, then find a small opening in the cube, to look through, to be able to view the garden inside.
