Blog
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Poppies
June 1st, 2020
Poppies are beautiful plants to grow in your garden. They are especially good in drier conditions on poorer soils. The photo above is from my garden. As you can guess, I love plants and as a designer the art of combining them creatively and harmonising them as backdrops against hard landscape materials. -
Still open for business
April 28th, 2020
Just to let you know if you are visiting my site that we are still open for business. Site visits will be all undertaken in the garden at a safe social distance. Plants and shrubs are still currently available from our local suppliers, Halls of Heddon. Landscaping materials have now become available again from this […] -
Digitalis
May 31st, 2019
Digitalis (foxglove) is a fantastic flower which has become a favourite at Chelsea. It’s tough in the way poppies can emerge on more barren ground so needs no maintenance. New colours are being created every year and it can add height and colour to cottage style beds. -
Chelsea woodland gardens
May 31st, 2019
Woodland gardens dominated the show at Chelsea although the peoples favourite was a Yorkshire garden along beside a canal gate. Most designers created a physical feature to play their flower designs against. Winner Andy Sturgeon created an amazing garden and won another gold. He got an expert to scorch wood for a week so he […] -
Shrubs
March 23rd, 2017
Flowering shrubs are beautiful additions to any bed in the garden. It’s important to select shrubs which are harmonious with the soil conditions. In Ponteland in Northumberland the soils are heavy clay and can get pretty wet in the cooler months of the year. Good choices would mean better growth and of course great flowering. […] -
What makes plants bloom?
February 24th, 2016
Soon plants will be blooming in Gosforth, Darras Hall, Morpeth, Jesmond and we’ll see springtime. As we rush out into our gardens to repair the damage of winter science can tell us what makes the plants bloom. They have a gene called Apetala1 which weighs up the changes in light , temperature and weather. When […] -
Prince Charles sees his gardening labour of love washed away
January 11th, 2016
The grounds at Birkhall, a Scottish garden developed over 14 years was washed away by flooding last week. This event made me think how people often experience setbacks with gardening (and with other things too) and although distressing and I guess expensive they give us a chance to start again with fresh ideas. Even the […] -
Lupins
January 6th, 2015
Originating in California Lupins are a beautiful flower and combine with other summer perennials like monarda and penstemon to create mid summer borders. Here in Darras Road ,Ponteland (near Newcastle) we designed and planted out a perennial border on a fantastic raised bed in the front entrance area of the driveway. The border timings are […]