A description of how I renewed my little pond, a vital part of the cottage garden style and feel, in the hope of encouraging even more wildlife into the garden.
I love everything about hardy geraniums and I now buy them online from the Cranesbill Nursery who grow a huge variety and sell big healthy plants with 1.5 litre rootballs. These plants are fantastic value and if you like the cottage garden style you wouldn’t want to be without them.
In a designed garden or a pristine perfect garden I wonder where they keep all the stuff that anyone pottering in their garden will need every few minutes? Where do they chuck stuff they don’t know what to do with?
I’m often asked by non-gardeners for advice on what to do with the patch outside their back door. Where do you start?
In my previous post “What is a garden for?” I suggested that a garden helps us live our lives outside of ourselves, physically and mentally. You can find that post here. My second idea is simple. My garden is for looking out onto like watching a slowly changing painting, changing during the day with movement
With the recent sunshine some of my more useful garden plants have gone quite mad and started spreading and growing and flowering. I love them and am very happy for them to go as mad as they like. Here they are: One Clematis Montana rubens, possibly the variety Elizabeth or similar which is useful to
I’ve been thinking about what a garden is for and will present one idea in each short blog over the next few weeks. By garden I want to include any space outside your home where something grows. It could be a window box, balcony, pot by the front door or a garden of any size.
I want to grow flowers early in the year to cut for vases indoors. However I don’t have room for a cutting patch. What to do? Well last autumn I crammed spring bulbs into 6 big plastic pots. I’m pleased to say they are coming up and I can cut a few every few days
Gardening was one big yawn until I hit 40 years old and plant a window box of petunias which surprisingly blossomed and I was rather impressed. Since then I’ve become a mad keen gardener and learned such a lot along the way. I enjoy being out in the garden every single day.
Keeping my optimism up and my hope bubbling as I look in the garden for the small things that tell us nature is moving on all the time.
Here are 6 tulips that have done well this year despite the crazy weather. Sadly most are over now so I will buy more late season tulips for next year.
My Mum gardened all her life until she died last year aged 105 and a half . She saw her spring bulbs come up. Gardening turns us into an eternal optimist, always looking ahead and hoping for the best. RIP Gretta.
Wonderful hardy geraniums from Cranesbill Nursery
Hardy geraniums In my very first blog in 2016 I wrote about my love for wonderful hardy geraniums here They really are some of the…
Real flowers and artificial flowers – both fabulous
I've recently discovered some online artificial flowers from Alex James that I think are beautiful and look wonderful either on their own or mixed with…
How to introduce a new colour in a cottage garden
A new colour in early Spring Here's a way to introduce a new colour in a cottage garden in early Spring. Plants can't always provide…
How to use colour in the cottage garden style
How to have colour in the cottage garden style town garden without it being too much work for one person to manage. Well I would…
Daffodils in a small garden – tips on how to grow them.
If you have a small garden like a town garden and want to grow daffodils, here are my tips on how best to do it,…