Garden maintenance is boring. It is often seen as the repetitive, less creative side of gardening, and is often delegated to people who are good at tidying up, but don’t really know what it is that they are tidying up, and nevermind why. This isn’t meant as a put-down of the tidy-uppers, more a general … Read More

Tips for a low maintenance garden Let’s face it, nobody has ever asked me to create a high maintenance garden. This post is about steps and attitudes to take if you want to feel that you’re ruling your garden and not the other way round. First of all, a low maintenance garden is a know … Read More

A recent stay in hospital meant that I was cut off from all external sounds for 3 days. My ward had a view over the hospital lobby, but no sound coming through the thick double glazing, and certainly no traffic noise, no wind whistling, no rain battering the windows and no birdsong. I knew that … Read More

This is a guest post from Rae Story. Rae is an artist and Qi-Gong practitioner, who integrates nature in her work. I shared with Rae this idea of ‘inheritance plants’, which are those significant plants we receive or get to know from other people and the ones we would like to pass on and be … Read More

As we become increasingly urbanised, our day to day appreciation of nature and how it presents itself to us is evolving. Over the past 20…

Over the years I have listened to friends’ and customers’ various garden “concerns”, which I sometimes try to debunk. They are usually to…

As a garden designer, I often feel like my customers’ personal shopper. In essence, I’m trying to be as good as possible at spending…

Within the range of my middle age lifespan, I have already seen many changes to familiar spaces. I have in mind two contrasting examples….

I’m a real sucker for a list. And in the gardening world there are many: top 20 plants for shade, 10 best roses, 25 easy…