Essays
If in Doubt, Paint it Black...
The colour black is everywhere around us in our homes and offices, yet not often in our gardens. Why is that? Because when it’s used correctly, black can be a real game changer… especially for your plants.
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
Can Perennials Fill The Hungry Gap?
Does there really need to be a hungry gap? This article explores how hardy perennials can fill the gap with abundant harvests, making spring a season of plenty rather than scarcity.
Essays
Unveiling Lives Through Gardens: A Gardener's Perspective
Our gardens can tell the stories of our lives, and as a working gardener, we are being given a chance to listen.
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Essays
Micro-Seasons and Daffodil Diaries: A Climate Change Drama
Can a Japanese calendar and an online daffodil diary help us understand if spring arrives earlier than it used to? And does it matter if it does? How an afternoon at the theatre helped me answer these questions.
Essays
The Forest in the Sky
Have you ever seen pigs fly? Well, I have seen flying gardeners… does that count? 112 metres skyward bound there is a horticultural experiment that the sceptics thought wouldn’t last, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Essays
Imbolc, Potatoes, and Lunar Gardening: Resisting the Gardener's Itch
Every February we feel the call to begin gardening, often too early, but taking guidance from the ancient Celtic festival of spring can help us with our timings.
Essays
Digging the Dirt
Why soil matters and how to make yours better.
Essays
A Pilgrimage to the Old Wooden Cathedral
This piece reflects on finding inspiration in nature, people, and place - spring walks, bluebell woods, and memories that shaped my Chelsea 2012 garden. Inspired by poet John Clare, it’s a reminder to slow down and let the landscape guide creativity.
Essays
The Floral Revolution: The Unexpected Battleground
I became a gardener because I adore flowers. But when my week comes round to share my flowers with the village, I find some unexpected barriers. Can I persuade those wedded to tradition of floral foam of a new way?
Essays
Pressed for All Time: The World’s Herbaria at the Click of a Mouse
How often do we think about the millions of dried plant specimens which have been languishing in herbaria around the world for decades? What is the point of them and why we should care?
Essays
The Gardener's Resilience: Adapting to Shifts in Climate and Culture
Why our changing climate, political discord, and cultural discontent mean we're living in the most interesting time to be a gardener or designer.
Essays
Take a Walk on the Wildside
An extraordinary garden in South Devon, where plant communities are explored and celebrated by one of this country’s best plantsmen.