Essays
Tales of Volunteer Plants, Cake, and Legacy
Round the world in plants without leaving my hometown, no planes or trains but maybe an automobile
Essays
The deep dives and the musings. Essays are what the Garden Collective writers do best. Perfect for morning coffee or an evening glass of something, a satisfying read.
Essays
The De-Stripeing of the Lawn
The discovery of a dusty box containing a 1960s toy garden kit sends me off on a journey through 20th century garden history.
Essays
The Last Week of June, and I Counter Disappointment with Cake
Summer's sweet pea perfume fills the air while disappointing plants teach hard lessons. With opium poppies setting seed and bees humming their happiness, I find solace in using my incidental harvests for cake.
Edibles
I ate them so you don’t have to
DJ John Peel said that if The Fall released an album he didn't like, he would assume he just didn't know how it was good yet; this is an excellent way of approaching produce from the kitchen garden, but a very small handful of harvests defy optimism.
Essays
Paradise is a State of Mind: Lessons from a Cornish Garden
Why does my own garden feel like a to-do list but someone else's feels like paradise? The Potager taught me that gardens are more than the weeding and the watering, and that there are deeper lessons to be found in this most special of places.
Essays
A Wild Life: Meet Chris Baines, The Original Wildlife Gardener
He has been championing British wildlife habitats under threat since the 1970s, and Chris Baines is still one of our leading environmentalists today, spreading the word that every garden, however small, can help reverse the decline
Essays
Embracing Nature's Riot of Colour: A Gardener's Confessional Journey
Bloom boldly: One gardener's colourful rebellion against horticultural norms. Read the journey from timid novice to passionate advocate for daring hues, discovering the joy of breaking free from 'good taste' & embracing nature's bold colour palette.
Essays
The Legacy of Lancelot Brown: Vandal, Visionary or Facilitator?
The landscape park’s journey during the 18th century was as serpentine as the paths and lakes which would later define it, whilst absorbing different trends along the way.
Essays
In which I complain about the heat but welcome in the squirrels
The air hangs heavy with heat, and I garden only at the ends of the day. And yet, in the dappled hedge, the squirrels are quietly at work, burying hazelnuts and sowing tomorrow’s nuttery with reckless abandon.
Essays
A Bird in the Hand...
or - How to Train a Robin!
Essays
Every Garden Should Have These Spring Flowers for Bumblebees
Before you fill your garden with anything else, start with these six unsung heroes. Newly emerged bumblebee queens need an early energy hit - and vital supplies for their new broods. Make every plant count.
Essays
The Badger Who Came For My Yacon
Gardeners are uniquely able to throw the garden gate and the larder door open to a world of unbuyable flavours, textures, varieties and experiences, and yacon is a delicious, easy way to do just that.