Six on Saturday 7th April 2018
Photos, thoughts and ideas from my cottage garden this week.
Ideas from an Adam Frost Garden School Masterclass
After attending Adam Frost’s September Masterclass, I wrote in a previous post about his ideas for thinking about designing and using your garden space. Adam’s second topic was about getting inspiration for our garden from other walks of life and our other passions. Ideas for his new garden came from the poet John Clare who
Ideas from a day at Adam Frost Garden School
In September I went to the Adam Frost Garden School near Stamford, for a one-day masterclass. It was hugely enjoyable. Adam was with 16 of us for the whole day, partly in a special classroom in his new home and partly in his country garden which we have seen on Gardeners’ World. I’m writing now about
Six on Saturday 30/9/17
Six topics in the garden this week One Showing off my compost again. Pile up kitchen waste, brown cardboard, green prunings from your garden and some grass clippings and it will turn into this brown stuff. No need to dig it in. The worms will carry it down. It’s magic and I never cease to
Six snapshots of Spring bulbs on a Saturday
Snowdrops then narcissi and then tulips – fabulous bulbs for spring which we plant in the autumn
Six self-seeders on a Saturday
Lovely self-seeders show how plants will grow and thrive without us having to do any gardening at all
Six on a Saturday: tips for not feeling overwhelmed by the cottage garden style
Having the cottage garden style involves a lot of gardening. Don’t imagine it doesn’t. This year it seems more than ever. I can often feel overwhelmed trying to keep on top of the jumble. Perennials can turn from glorious to spent in a matter of days. So I am having some ideas about how
Inspiration for cottage gardening at Belmont Gardens, Kent
Entering Belmont Gardens in Kent I had the opportunity to walk alongside the Head Gardener and I could sense that here was a man who loved his work and the garden. This gave me the feeling that I was going to like this place. My hero Dan Pearson talks about a “sense of place” by which I
London Cottage Garden boundaries – changing brown to green
I’ve taken this picture standing at the back door. This is the whole garden and it measures 11 metres long by 6 metres wide. We look out onto it from our conservatory kitchen/living area all year round. I thought I would describe what is planted in the garden, starting at the edges with the fences
My view of cottage garden style
Here are my thoughts on how I would describe my own cottage garden style. I like close planting with little or no bare earth, a mixture of shrubs, trees and perennials, simple forms, old varieties, single flowers, easy to grow, native and non-native mixed. Scent, movement, wildlife, changing seasons, minimal weeding and watering, simple pruning, no
The Garden Layout
This is a 1920s terraced house with a rectangular garden front and back. In the south-facing front garden we sacrificed 5 metres to car space but the remainder is 12m long and 6m wide. The red brick path to the front door has a 1m deep border on one side, and beds and stone paths