A Prairie Garden Visit in Sussex

If you are down in Sussex and looking for a good garden to visit, don’t hesitate to go and see Sussex Prairies Garden, we had a lovely afternoon in the beautiful garden a couple of weeks ago. You can wander in eight acres of naturalistically planted prairie...

Design Ideas – inspiration or sweat?

Design ideas come from everywhere and everything, sometimes you immerse yourself in an idea, work at it and develop it, then it sits in the back of your mind and simmers slowly. I find the ‘simmering time’ vital as  you take the idea, push and pull it...

Geums – stalwarts of the flower border…

Geums have been one of the talked about plants at Chelsea in the last few years – the orange coloured ‘Prinses Juliana’ (height 60cm, spread 50cm), flowers May – July, and ‘Totally Tangerine’ (height 75cm, spread 50cm) flowers April...

Top Garden Trends for 2015

In the world of fashion for Spring 2015, navy is the ‘new black’, the pattern is gingham and the style of jacket is ‘kimono cool’. A couple of months ago I brought a kimono style jacket for a change and I am delighted to be ‘kimono...

A Bumper Year for Fruit in the Garden…

  It has been a bumper year for fruit in our gardens and I often include fruit trees in my garden designs.  A great way of making the most of sunny walls and fences in a garden is to wire them up and add some trained fruit trees.  Or you can put in wooden posts...

A Deja Vu Design Moment…

I am sure we have all had one or two deja vu moments in our lives, but I was not expecting a design one.  I had been asked to redesign the rear garden terrace of an Arts and Crafts House with a wide set of steps up to the terrace from the lawn. I felt very strongly...