Garden Geek

13/02/2026

Nature finds a way, beautiful moss and lichen on top of a bollard in a Matalan car park!

08/03/2025

Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' looking and smelling radiant right now.

04/03/2025

My teabreak companion today

13/07/2024

I feel quite honoured that I've been asked to be a judge at the Taunton Flower Show this year. Hopefully I'll be shadowing a judge and learning about the process.

25/04/2024

Planting out sweet peas today. Making a wigwam is easy. I placed 5 sticks in a circle, pushed in to the ground, slanting slightly inwards.
Tie the tops tightly together, this also gives the structure more strength.
Place 2 or 3 plants at the base of each stick and lightly tie them on, this will help get started and stop them flopping about.
Give them a good water and watch them go!

28/03/2024

This weather is awful! Its been so difficult to garden this winter, some days have been complete write offs. Even when it's not been raining the soil is so saturated you can't work on it.
It is amazing to see the difference in soil quality in gardens that have been regularly mulched to those that don't. The soil stays much more friable even when there has been heavy rain.
Also, I'm running out of dry gloves!

16/07/2023

At least all this rain means no watering

13/07/2023

When you live on a houseboat and want to grow tomatoes...

17/03/2023

I'm feeling very proud of myself, I finished planting up a parterre of yew, with standard roses (Margaret Merrill) and a beautiful pot in the middle. There's still some more planting to be done but the structure is there.

22/07/2022

My gardening companion today, miniature poodle Teddy

18/07/2022

A brilliant article on why you really shouldn't have fake grass.

Artificial lawns are higher maintenance than the adverts will have you believe … and they’ll burn your feet in this heatwave

23/01/2022

Signs of spring