Garden design
Liminal Loveliness: Treasuring The Space Between
How I'm planning to re-frame the view from my kitchen
Latest
Inspirational gardens
Where it all Began - My Gardens Inspiration
The garden of my family home has always been the inspiration for my career as a garden writer. A succession of my predecessors were responsible for its creation through three centuries, with ups and downs along the way.
Wildlife
Creating a Garden Aviary Without the Cage
The importance of garden birds is becoming increasingly clear and in this article I outline why. Find out what we can be doing as gardeners to encourage them to visit, or better still to come and live and breed in our gardens.
Garden design
Winter Gloss
In praise of a slightly random collection of evergreens
Autobiography
Gardening with mini dictators
Are children simply another pest to deal with in the garden? A question I ask myself regularly as flowers are beheaded and a tyrannical toddler soaks me with the hose. Here are some tips to survive, and dare I say, enjoy gardening with kids!
Inspirational gardens
Tom Stuart-Smith on the Crisis Facing Rousham
One of our finest historic gardens is at risk of losing its tremendous setting: garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith hopes to change that.
Pets
Angels or Demons? Frank Settles the Debate
Some people love them, some people loathe them. Some gardens are designed to coddle them, some are fortresses built to keep them out. This is a conversation without end…
Trees
Trees across Three Continents
Recent travels in search of trees shine a light on the need for tree planting at home.
Seasonal
Who Says Boundaries are a Good Thing?
Forget rigid boundaries between indoors and out. As autumn deepens, bring nature inside with preserved beech branches, paperwhite bulbs nestled in glass, and wild clematis wreaths. It's about softening edges and celebrating the season's golden beauty
Flowers
Common ... or Garden?
From white gardens to tool trollies, here is a list of all the things I find 'common' in the gardening world - just don't ask about my hot tub.
Houseplants
A Schlumbergera is for Life, Not Just For Christmas
Forget a quick planty fix for Christmas - buy or rehome a holiday cactus and you'll be enjoying fabulous displays from an heirloom plant year after year.
Through the Garden Gates
The Secret Suffolk Tradescant Garden
Our Suffolk coastal village is packed with celebrities but a chance conversation with a neighbour revealed a true superstar - the father of modern gardening - John Tradescant the Elder - created a garden up the road from me. I went to take a look.