The winter garden often looks drab, unloved and uncared for – the blaze of summer and autumn plants has dried and withered leaving a sorry tale of what came before. Most of us abandon the garden in the winter months in favour of the warmth of the fire inside reading books and endless reality TV programmes! Take a look around you – I think you will find that there is plenty going on in the garden, so don’t just sit and wait for the daffodils to appear take a look at what is already brightening up your garden this winter.
Entries Tagged as 'General'
Garden Design | Nothing happening in the winter garden?
January 21st, 2012 No Comments
Tags: Bath · Chippenham · enjoy · garden design · gardening · Plant · snow · striking display · weather · Wiltshire
Guest Blog | Introducing Banners Broker – a new way to advertise online and make money!
January 17th, 2012 No Comments
Banners Broker is an online advertising network that manages the sourcing, publishing and performance tracking of ads that make the connection between advertisers and publishers around the world.
Tags: benefit · development · money saving · networking · opportunity · Success · value
Guest blog | Adding Solar Fountains to the Garden
August 25th, 2011 No Comments
A beautiful garden is a place to marvel at nature, relax the mind, and entertain with family and friends. It’s a chance to show off all the hard work you’ve done, choosing just the right plants and creating the perfect arrangement to display them. But what if you’re looking to add a little something extra to your garden? Where do you turn? One of the best, most eco-friendly ways you can do that is by adding a solar fountain to your garden. Here are some things to consider when purchasing one.
Tags: Bath · benefit · Chippenham · imagination · low maintenance · reduced carbon · sunshine · Wiltshire
Gardening | Corsham Gardeners’ Question Time
July 6th, 2011 No Comments
t is fair to say we had no real idea what to expect or how to go about our first attempt – what sort of questions were we going to be asked? How could we prepare for every eventuality? How many books would we need to help us? How dry could we stay? Would anyone have any questions for us?
Our fears were soon banished as people braved the weather and came forward with their questions. There were plenty for Michelle on growing vegetables and fruit which is really encouraging – particularly as this was a food festival! Although some were rather unexpected – Can you grow Apples & Pears in Bangladesh? I bet the real Gardeners’ Question Time never had a question like that! We reasoned that it was probably too hot and that they should stick to citrus!
Tags: Bath · Chippenham · Corsham · gardening · Plant · weather · Wiltshire
Garden Design | An evening with Dan Hinkley – rocking with laughter!
March 17th, 2011 No Comments
It is perhaps appropriate that tomorrow is Red Nose Day 2011. What better way to get you in the mood than to listen to an American, with a passion for gardening and an almost British sense of humour – his dry wit had clearly missed most of his American audiences but was most definitely not lost on his very english audience tonight.
Though organised by Derry Watkins of Special Plants fame (who was keen to point out that her gardens were now open on Tuesdays) – who is of course american herself, Dan Hinkley drew a large audience to the Bath University Gardening Club to illustrate a talk on two Pacific North West gardens. The climate there seemed pretty similar to Britain with some oddities bought about by its coastal location.
Tags: development · enjoy · garden design · gardening · Inspiration · Plant · weather
Two cakes, a biscuit and a royal garden.
September 2nd, 2010 No Comments
Twitter has a lot to answer for. How else would you get 25 people from around the country to visit a garden on a glorious sunny , early September afternoon.
Meeting before going to the garden it was clear that all was not quite as it might have been! In order that the 25 recognise each other we were invited to wear a button hole in the true spirit of a blind date. All was going swimmingly with assorted flora being sported until one of our number arrived wearing a half eaten digestive biscuit secured with a badly mis-shapen paperclip!
Perhaps I should explain that this gathering was no ordinary outing but a meeting of gardening enthusiasts of various persuasions found loitering with intent on Twitter and the garden we were to visit was Highgrove, the garden of HRH Prince Charles. The biscuit arrived courtesy of James Alexander-Sinclair which somehow saw the topic of conversation move on to cakes.
Tags: blog · garden design · Garden Network · Garden Organic · gardening · networking · Plant · sunshine · sustainable · Twitter
Gardening | Garden design | Ramblings from the Malvern Spring Show 2010
May 11th, 2010 No Comments
One of my main reasons for visiting as a Garden Designer is to look at the Show Gardens. Malvern isn’t known as a hotbed for innovation particularly but it can provide some neat glimpses at how other designers approach a garden or planting and I particularly enjoyed chatting with Deb Bird about her garden The Nature of Nurture which particularly struck a chord as I learned much of my gardening from my parents and grandparents. Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas though came in the Schools Section, where two gardens featured greenhouses made from recycled plastic bottles.
Tags: blog · enjoy · garden design · Garden Organic · imagination · Inspiration · networking · One Pot Pledge · Plant · weather
Gardening | The Honest Scrap award!
January 31st, 2010 1 Comment
Rachel Mathews kindly awarded me this hugely prestigious title. Never heard of it I hear you cry – well no neither had I until I received my nomination (thanks Rachel…) The idea is to share 10 things about me that you wouldn’t know about me from reading my blog and then tag 7 others (before [...]
Tags: blog · Honest scrap award
VP's VIPs: Tim Matcham, Garden Designer
January 24th, 2010 No Comments
This article appears courtesy of VP who has kindly allowed me to ad it to my blog: It recounts our meeting on a winters morning and the great fun we had discussing gardening. Over to VP! – I have something new for you today: VP’s VIPs, a series of interviews with people involved with the [...]
Tags: blog · enjoy · garden design · Garden Network · gardening · Inspiration · snow
Gardening | Garden Design | Garden related blogs I follow and why!
January 14th, 2010 2 Comments
Veg Plotting – eclectic mix of gardening and other topics – VP and I met via Film At The Pound in Corsham (which I am delighted to sponsor) and subsequently met up at Allington Farm Shop for a lengthy chat about gardening, garden design and The Garden Network amongst other topics that included collecting 1st [...]
Tags: blog · enjoy · garden design · gardening