Last week I was very honoured to be invited to a special garden event at Loseley Park after they had seen my blog post about the garden earlier in the month.  We were given a fabulous tour of the gardens by Head Gardener, Burney, who has developed them over the past 17 years.  We then finished the day with a scrummy lunch in the new restaurant and a tour of the house by owner, Michael More-Molyneux.

The thing that struck me most was the passion of everyone involved in keeping the estate alive!  Burney talked to us about his connection with the garden.  He feels it is very much a family garden – his children have grown up in it and he hopes that visitors to the garden get this sense when they explore it.  I certainly get that feeling about the garden, as I’ve mentioned before, I love the garden there because it has an informal feel about it, almost as if it could be my own.

Each year Burney and his colleagues develop a new area within the garden, partly to give new interest for returning visitors, but mostly to keep the garden alive.  This year they are developing a Gertrude Jekyll border in the walled garden.  Gertrude Jekyll was associated with the garden in the early 1900s so the planting scheme will be designed with her planting style and colour scheme in mind, more a tribute of her work than an exact replica of her designs.

One of the future plans for the garden is to build a bridge over the moat that will lead to the wild flower meadow beyond.  This will give visitors the chance to meander through the flowers on a series of mown paths, an area that they can only view from a distance at the moment.

The planting at Loseley in the main garden is designed so that there is interest and colour from May to September so there is much to see whatever time you decide to visit.  Over the next few months I will be running a special blog series about the garden and how it changes through the seasons so I hope that you’ll pop back to take a look.

Over the past week or so I have been working on the concept design for a garden in Woking and I am very pleased to be able to show you the initial sketches.  The site is challenging because the soil is very sandy and there are 3 oak trees beyond the end boundary which puts the garden in shade for most of the day.  These trees are also subject to a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) so it was clear from the beginning that we would need to embrace them as part of the design and fortunately my clients prefer not to sit in the sun! Read more

As some of you might be aware, I coordinate a local cluster group of Garden Designers, the purpose of which is to keep our design ideas fresh and to share our knowledge and expertise.  On Thursday we were very fortunate to be able to visit Wild Flower Turf in Overton, Hampshire, to see their production site and learn more about the development of their wildflower turf. Read more

Last weekend I went on a 13 mile circular walk with a friend of mine around Alton in Hampshire.  It was one of the best walks I have ever done, such variety in the landscape, amazing vibrant colours that only Springtime brings and gorgeous weather too.  The landscape varied from farmland with fabulous views to English woodland with anemones and bluebells – just gorgeous! Read more

This month’s post from the Flowers In Pots series is all about hostas and planting them in pots is ideal as you’ll find out later in this post. Read more

Have any of you been watching Monty Don’s Italian Gardens?  I finally had the opportunity to watch the first one yesterday and it really got me thinking about how different the general approach to gardens is in our modern world. Read more

I love the garden at Loseley Park and we popped in there today after visiting the Grow Your Own Show that was being held in the grounds. You may remember me blogging about Loseley Park before, but I thought I’d share some pictures of how it looked today, which was so amazingly different to June last year! Read more

On Sunday I went to visit Chestnut Lodge in Cobham, Surrey, which was open under the National Garden Scheme (NGS).  The description in the Yellow Book sounded quite intriguing…a 5-acre garden surrounding a late Georgian house with formal areas near the house, specimen trees, wisteria and rare exotic plants as well as a naturalised pond and an aviary walk with a fine collection of tropical birds. Read more

SPRING – APRIL/MAY Read more

Rona and I hope you’re enjoying our Flowers In Pots series.  Perhaps you’ve potted up your primula plants and agapanthus bulbs. Read more