The Shade Garden in Spring and Early Summer Right Plant / Right Place Here are my cobbled-together notes from a recent workshop on shade gardening, highlighting the planting possibilities for those folk who are lucky enough to have a shady spot in their garden. There is a wide, wide - wide - range of…
Welcome Shade
I've a workshop at Petersham Nurseries for their ongoing program in the School of Garden Inspiration and I am tackling the shadier aspects of the garden - north-facing aspects, tall walls and boundaries, trees - and the dry, inhospitable places as well as the cool and damp. These areas ought to be a welcome distraction…
Planting for Honey Bees and other pollinators ….
Bee Mindful/Planting for honeybees and beneficial pollinators These are some of my notes for a day-long workshop taking place at Petersham Nurseries today, focusing as we have all month on the honeybee, bee-keeping, planting for bees, honey tasting and fermenting and styling with fresh flowers. And lunch, let's not forget that important little bit, and…
Continue reading ➞ Planting for Honey Bees and other pollinators ….
A Grand Day Out – Loseley House & Gardens – Within the Walled Garden, a Rose Garden, Flower Garden, White Garden, Herb and Edible Garden, and then a Moat, Tudor House, Parkland ….
Thank goodness for that - only having lived within striking distance of this Tudor House, Walled Garden and Parkland just down the A3 between Guildford and Godalming - for nigh on 19 years - we got there! And we were not disappointed. This is a busy estate and a very busy wedding venue - so…
A Riot of Roses at David Austin HQ – An Access All Areas Tour of the Gardens, Glasshouses, Breeding Program, Trial Fields … and musings on Fragrance in the summer and autumn garden –
The Gardens at David Austin Roses, Albrigton, Shropshire They may have been battered by the rains but how beautiful are these gardens still! A veritable riot of colour, in beds and borders, along paths and clothing walls and clambering up and over pillars. Every conceivable space is festooned. Walls have climbers and ramblers flowering from…
Stylish Summer Containers
I'm hosting a workshop at Petersham Nurseries, part of a seasonal series we hold, discussing all things containers, planters, troughs, window boxes, bowls, urns ... for a long-lasting, hopefully interesting, fragrant, colourful, herby, floral, edible and beautiful summer-long display. I shall be looking back at some of the medleys we put together last summer, autumn…
Stylish late – late summer containers
I hosted a workshop a few weeks ago now, at Petersham Nurseries, with the title of 'Stylish late-summer containers. I promised the guests that I would create some notes and have been very tardy I doing so. I hope to remedy this here, jotting down a few of the points we covered, and details of…
Winter Containers
Stylish winter containers with ideas and examples from Petersham Nurseries; colour, texture, fragrance contrast and harmony for outdoor planting combinations
Petersham Nurseries 15 Years and going strong …
Celebrations this week for the 15th Anniversary of Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, marked with an evening banquet all around the theme of the honey-bee - floral installations, menu, even the wine, with Cire Trudon and their new honey-scented candle delighting the senses throughout the entire glasshouse. A memorable evening and so pleased to have been…
Continue reading ➞ Petersham Nurseries 15 Years and going strong …









