Trees
I’m in awe of trees. (read more...)
I’m in awe of trees. (read more...)
The recent heatwave has turned my thoughts to Mediterranean gardens. (read more...)
“How well the skillful gard’ner drew (read more...)
Regular readers of our blogs may have noticed a slight penchant for using hedgerow plants within a gardened context – and, they’d be right! Such understated and familiar rural plants offer a wonderful counterpoint to a more structured geometric plan. There is also a similarity to the Japanese philosophy of ‘elevating the ordinary’ here, plus a touch of nostalgia for... (read more...)
Garden designers don’t work in isolation. Our points of reference are not purely landscape orientated – if they were, our output might become rather inward looking. We are constantly open to cross-pollination and influenced by all sorts of phenomena be they environmental, aesthetic, architectural, nostalgic, political, pragmatic, poetic, musical or literary. I’m particularly inspired by the visual arts. (read more...)
It’s impossible not to get a little bit caught up in World Cup fever even if, like me, you can’t tell one end of a football pitch from the other. (read more...)
I'm passionate about foxgloves, in the right location they naturalise readily, they are easy to cultivate, the resulting varieties are rich in colour, stature and texture – I like the sophisticated rusty brown shades. These elegant plants have history, beauty, variety, a suspicion of danger and, being very attractive to bumblebees, serve a practical environmental purpose – what is not... (read more...)
A good and important question, and whilst I’m probably on a hiding to nothing in trying to define a house style – since there are so many variables and one is never standing still – it is an interesting exercise none-the-less. Here goes! (read more...)
I fell in love with cow parsley as a boy. I knew it as a common weed and, running amok in our garden woodland, it was considered anything but precious. My brother and I would cut linking pathways through it – an early exploration into garden design? We used hazel sticks as machetes to feel like Amazonian explorers, or bare-chested,... (read more...)
My first visit to RHS Chelsea Flower Show was as a boy being dragged, kicking and screaming, by my mum. I thought it would be full of the “paisley-skirted ladies who lunch” brigade. Turns out I enjoyed it in all its diversity, the wacky and bizarre end of things, of course! But I was also struck by the elegant, contemporary... (read more...)