Here you will find posts detailing progress and developments from my garden in Surrey, UK. I will share an update each month covering new projects, planting, and general improvements. As well as working on my own garden, I also offer horticultural services, focusing on design and maintenance. I successfully completed the RHS Level 2 Certificate in Practical Horticulture in 2020.
I’m going to start this post with a note: if you’re reading this on your phone, hold it landscape and the format looks how it should do! As per one of my New Year’s resolutions to be more observant of how the garden develops over the seasons, I’ve identified some of the coppice trees that line the bank of our
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I took some annual leave in the run up to Christmas and made a conscious effort to not become totally sedentary – I recently got a fitness watch so wanted to see if I could maintain some semblance of fitness. I decided that walking would be our activity of choice and we went on quite a few decent ambles in
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I forgot to mention in last month’s post that we installed a bird box that Luke made from scratch (he got the build instructions from the RSPB). The guidance suggests that you put these up towards the end of winter; however, they also say that some birds will use these to roost in during the colder months so we thought
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In reflection of the things we’ve done in the garden this year, I’ve gotten so much pleasure from the hanging baskets we planted back in April. Every time we leave the house (especially in the mornings before the commute) I look at them and they’ve changed and grown so much over the months. I particularly enjoy the red tinge the
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At the beginning of September we visited the north Cotswolds on our honeymoon. The main attraction was to visit the garden at Hidcote and it didn’t disappoint! Since watching a programme on this garden a few years ago we’ve always wanted to go – it’s an incredible place with so many garden rooms crammed into a relatively small place.
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On August 25th Luke and I got married! Unfortunately the sweet peas ‘Jilly‘ which I planted as seeds back in January were a little past it. However, all was not lost as we had a glut of sunflowers ‘Micro Sun‘ and also from another multi-headed variety that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of. We picked the wedding flowers ourselves from a
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We’ve had an unseasonably hot few months in the garden – July 2018 has been one of the hottest since records began (second only to 2006); this means that the garden is lovely to walk around late in the evening…but far too hot for midday toiling! As such we haven’t really ‘done’ that much in the garden this month although
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It seemed that lots of the plants burst into flower in early June – here are some of the highlights: We visited my grandparents in the last weekend in May and divided up their hostas for our garden. We made a display in pots with half of them and the rest were planted out into the mixed border. We thought
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One of the first things we did this month was visit ‘Isabella Plantation‘ in Richmond Park. I highly recommend this place – its totally magical. It feels like a secluded woodland and is dominated by huge rhododendrons and Azaleas – It’s so colourful at this time of year. My favourite part was the stream that runs through it, it’s bordered
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April saw a flurry of activity in the garden as we were both home for 2 weeks for the Easter holiday… We decided that we would divide up the perennials that we bought last year and take the plunge and plant them into a mixed border. We actually started first by planting 2 clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’ against the front
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