Category: flower painting
Creating an easycare perennial border
April 13, 2018
With so much choice when it comes to perennial border plants, choosing the perfect products for your garden can be difficult. If you’ve yet to try splitting your birders into three sections (front, middle and back), it’s an effective and fun way to make choosing your perennials easy. Once you start thinking about your plants by section, it’s just a question of choosing the right sizes and the colours to fit your scheme.
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Being Realistic…
February 7, 2014
Flood defences on the River Mole, near Hampton Court, Surrey
I did not intend to refer to the weather yet again, for the rain has been incessant; the wind up to gale force at times and a constant grey pall hanging over this part of the Cotswolds. Actually today is actually quite pleasant, though the ground is far too wet for gardening out of doors. With the sun shining, is does provide a moment of opportunity to take photos, which is an ongoing requirement for any journalist. Last weekend we were taking images elsewhere in the Cotswolds – I’m always on the lookout for images that I can stitch into the booklets I make, and bare trees are a recurring subject – which have to be taken before bud-burst.
Snow? A good time to plan
February 12, 2013
The Courtyard Potager beds are still visible under the snow.
Snow over much of the country seems to be more prevalent this winter than in I remember in the past – in the 1980s I think when we hardly had a frost. More precise weather forecasting has definitely improved but even so, I sometimes forget to re-cover the beds from which I had removed the netting set to deter blackbirds from rummaging between my overwintering herbs and cats from scratching into the bulb bed.
The beauty of garden shows
July 19, 2012
A show garden photographed today at the RHS Flower Show, Tatton Park
This post comes to you live from Cheshire – at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park. Having experienced and enjoyed the show here last year, I wanted to view it from a different angle – not so much specific vegetables or flowers, but other aspects that help one to make the garden an extension of one’s home. Show gardens nearly always inspire, whether they are the sort that one could replicate, or ones that seem to be more design-and-build than gardening with plants. The stories behind any show design always intrigues and ‘Remount’ designed by Stephen Dennis & Brett Landscaping was no exception. A contemporary, modern space on the site of an old barn, it made use of recycled building materials (Cheshire brick, cobbles and partially rendered walls). One wall incorporated dozens of ‘living-wall’ succulents; an environmentally-friendly touch as they are natural air-purifiers.