Filler flowers - an essential part of the cutting garden for bouquets and wedding designs, and I'd have countless varieties if I had the space for them! However, I'm working with just a few beds, and have to be very selective about what I grow. I'm growing no more than about 15 different fillers and these 5 are my absolute favourites.
Read moreMy Top 5 Foliages for the Cutting Garden
Foliage is a funny old thing. People disregard it as just 'greens', but it's the mainstay of almost all floral design. There's a vast range of different textures and colours available, and it's an easy way to fill spaces in the cutting garden and create permanent structure . These are my 5 favourites, all of which are easy to grow in most of the UK.
Read moreTop Five Plants Series
Autumn is here and the garden is slowly starting to wind down for the winter. I'm working with a fairly small space in my cutting garden, beds are precious and only the most beautiful and productive plants get a spot. Even so, there's a lot to do and I've been out over the last couple of weeks pottering about; taking cuttings, planting out and clearing spaces for the spring bulb order that's coming soon.
It's got me thinking about my favourite plants, which ones I'll always make space for, so I thought I'd do a 'My Top 5 Plants for the Cutting Garden' blog post. But after about 30 seconds of writing I realised that would just be impossible - there are far too many! But I've managed to narrow down my top 5 in various different categories, and over the next couple of months I'm going to be sharing these with you, and hopefully inspiring you in your garden planning for next year!
Read moreDIY Larkspur Confetti
We’re in the thick of going-to-weddings season at the moment, three down and one to go! And what is a wedding without confetti? I love it, colourful and fluttery and celebratory. But the paper stuff is a nightmare, staining everything and having to be swept up. I much prefer to make my own from flower petals and larkspur are the absolute easiest to use
Read moreSummer in the Cutting Garden
Summer is in full swing in the cutting garden and the beds are bursting with colour and beautiful blooms. Roses and clematis are scrambling over the fences, the dahlias are towering over Imogen's head and cerinthe is spilling out of the herb border. We've had a few rainy days that have rotted roses and encouraged slugs which has been frustrating but things are, thankfully, looking up!
Read moreTulip Season
This week I finally pulled up the tulip bulbs to get some space back for perennials. They bloomed for weeks and filled that little corner of the garden with gorgeous soft pink tones. So beautiful but also such a learning curve, it appears I have a lot to learn about growing tulips!
Read moreBare Earth
Winter is often seen as a time of quiet in the garden. But there are stirrings underground and every day I see more tiny green shoots poking out of the earth. The bark mulch covering the tulips is being pushed aside as they reach up towards the light. Yesterday I noticed the first snowdrops, today the buds of the dark pink hellebores starting to unfurl.
The bed at the bottom of the garden is north facing, damp and shady. We've planted fruit trees there, they will grow high enough to stand up tall above the fence and soak in the light from across the valley, but the flowers at their base get no light at all until lunchtime. Last year I planted bulbs down there, and I've recently potted up snowdrops, fritillaries and hellebore seedlings to move into the bed later in the spring. In a couple of years they will have naturalised and will provide a wonderful show to get us through the winter days until the foxgloves bloom and anemones open.
Astrantia is another wonderful plant for shade and I've got 15 of them waiting in pots to move into that bed and help it earn its keep during the summer. They're going to look wonderful alongside the climbing roses I'm training up and over the fence. Hold tight for a few months and this blog will be full of them! My seed order arrived today too, more precious packets of potential to fill the summer with colour. And a reminder there's an awful lot to do before March - plants in pots to move into the beds, seedlings to take their place, a greenhouse to build. It's never quiet in the cutting garden and it'll just get busier as wedding season kicks off... but that's the joy in growing!