A wonderful garden to seek inspiration for garden layout, planting and water features. I was lucky enough to visit in late July 2022 with a keen gardening friend and we spent the day wondering the many pathways and discovering various areas across the large garden. 

In 2001, leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith was commissioned to transform a six acre south facing field into a walled garden. The new area, walled on two sides, features three individually themed terraces with a fantastic selection of planting chosen to tie in with the rural views beyond. 

You will also find, a topiary parterre, meadow, woodland garden and wild pond area. Well worth a visit and a gentle stroll around the garden in the summer months. 

​For more info visit Broughton Grange Gardens

What can lift the sprits more than a display of brightly colour Tulips in the spring months? I just love Tulips and I have so many photos on them stored away, I can't resist snapping away to preserve their vibrancy.  Now is the best time to order your Tulips ready for planting once the temperatures have cooled in November.

Some of my favourites:

Princess Irene Parrot - all the joy of Princess Irenes orange and purple hues, with a frill along the petal edges. 

Queen of the Night - the classic near black tulip. Wonderful mixed with paler shades against a green background.

Ronaldo - a rich marron classic shaped tulip which is reliable.

Ballerina - the most vibrant orange tulip with lily shaped blooms. 

It's very satisfying to be able to pop into the garden and pick a posie of fresh, home grown cut flowers.  I like to grow some flowers for cutting from seed or tubers each year and then the rest of the posie is made up from blooms growing in my perennial borders. 

Some of my favourite cut flowers for posies in late summer:

Dahlias - such amazing vibrant blooms and easy to grow. There are so many colours and forms to chose from.  I tend to prefer the hot coloured Dahlias in shades of orange and rich purple. 

Rudbeckia - The half-hardy annual version produces some incredible velvety blooms in rustic shades of red, rust, orange and yellow, perfect for a posie reflecting the late summer. Chimchiminee is a favoourite variety to grow in my garden.  See central image below.

Zinnia - these take a while to bloom in my garden and generally hit their peek in late summer. They come in a full range of colours and I generally grow a mixed packet of seed so I have a choice to pick from.​..

When the the days are long and the temperature warm, the perennials in our gardens really put on a dazzling show. I love to use colourful plants in our garden projects to add vibrancy and drama to a space. 

Here are a few of my favourites to use:

Salvia - so many to chose from but you can't really go wrong with Caradonna or it's smaller cousin Caramia. Both needing a sunny spot and free draining soil, they will flower for months with moody violet blooms.

Helenium - I love Moerheim Beauty for it's long lasting rich red blooms tinged with burnt orange. A tall perennial i sue at the back of a border. 

Aster Monch - This creates a great cloud of pale blue daisies in the late summer and autumn, and is a must have in any of my projects

I hope i have inspired you to add some of these plants to your garden for summer colour​

A garden very much worth visiting if you are in the North East and one which was on my to do list for quite some time! Designed by Alistair Baldwin Associates the walled garden which is said to hold 3000 David Austin roses and a huge array of beautiful perennials, it is quite a sight to behold. We visited at the end of August 2022 by which time many of the roses had finished flowering but there was still plenty to see. The water features are some of the best i have ever seen and very inspiring. 

We plan to revisit in June or early July to see the roses in the full throws of flowering. 

For more info visit Wynyard Hall 

After the long cold months of winter, a vibrant splash of colour in the garden is just what you need to lift the spirits!  I do love a mixed border teaming with possibilities of flower and foliage colour, scent and texture.

​Here are some of my favourite plants for spring colour:

Erysimum (Wall Flowers) - a zingy splash of colour from Wall Flowers is what I love to see in  my borders from March onwards. In the areas where I plant hotter colours, Fire King is my favourite variety, where as in the cooler coloured borders I like to use Sunset Purple

Allium - Purple Rain is my absolute variety variety for it's large open flower heads of vivid purple. Here you can see it teamed with Aquilegia Black Barlow (another favourite of mine).

Euphorbia - I love the vibrancy of the acid green bracts in spring, Humpty Dumpty is a good compact form. 

Primroses - one of the earliest perennials to flower in  my garden and loved by the early bees. 

Hellebores - my absolute must have plant for spring colour, I am a tad obsessed with them. I have so many i will have to write a separate article on them!

I hope you have been inspired to add a few more early flowering plants to your own borders. 

I love to be able to pop into my own garden a gather a few flowers for the house. It doesn't mean that I grow all of my flowers specifically for cutting. Often in the spring months I rely in being able to harvest flowers and foliage from my permanent borders which contain shrubs, perennials, bulbs and grasses. 

Here are some of my favourite plants to pick from in the spring to make my own garden posies:

Euphorbia - I grow several varieties in my borders including E.oblongata which produces slender stems of vibrant acid green flowers for most of the year,

Erysimum (Wall Flowers) - A splash of colour from Wall flowers can be so welcome as the winter months make way for the spring. Available in shades of purple, pink, yellow, orange and white there's one for everybody.

Heuchera - the foliage can be wonderful in small posies to provide a tonal contrast and a backdrop for the more vibrant flowers...

The Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden is definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in St Ives in Cornwall.  We visited on a warm and sunny day in June 2022 and the enclosed oasis of greenery was very welcome in the heat. The sculptures Barbara created in her workshop on site, nestle in amongst the verdant planting and act as a wonderful background to some really stunning organic forms. 

The planting mainly consists of shrubs and some grassy forms in various shades of green and there is a pretty lean to greenhouse with terracotta pots of pelargoniums and cacti. 

For more info visit:
Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden St Ives

​Over the years i’ve tried and tested many spades, forks, secateurs & cultivators and i’m guilty of buying some which look lovely but just can’t withstand more than an occasional bit of light work!  So i thought i’d share with you my favourite tools, those we use for planting our projects and those worth buying to help you maintain your new garden. 

Spades and forks are the key tool.  They need to be hard wearing, light enough for use all day and easy to clean up and keep in good shape. I learnt several years ago that the beautiful looking wooden handled types you see in all of the garden centres are just not strong enough for regular soil preparation on our local heavy soils. I’ve broken more than i care to mention! So i now choose those with stronger handles and avoid metal handles which tend to be too heavy . Stainless steel blades & tines are a must, the very cheapest spades and forks you’ll find in the garden centres have carbon steel blades which are strong but their surface isn’t as smooth as stainless steel so it is more difficult to slice into the ground and to clean the blade afterwards.
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For planting borders we opt for 'border' spades which have a smaller blade than a traditional 'garden spade'. As they are light weight  they are user friendly for long-lasting planting jobs. We will use a larger garden spade for planting large shrubs or trees. We tend not to use forks for planting. These are kept for breaking up ground or mixing manure/ compost into the soil.  I recommend Draper 'expert' range as i find them durable and long lasting.