2013

Dare I say it? I missed Diairmuid Gavin’s habitually controversial design madness at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year. Chelsea is all about the unexpected, and no one quite caters for that quite like the ‘bad boy of garden design’. Having said that, be it the English countryside inspired garden by Christopher Bradley Hole, the avenue of dead trees in Jo Thompson’s lovely Fera garden, Adam Frost’s delectable edible [...]

And there it is. That terrifying question, conjuring up hot faced, school bench anxieties, ‘Right, time to show me what you’ve learned’. Oozing with horticultural knowledge, the RHS Chairman of Moderators, superb plantswoman and all round horticultural treasure, Jekka McVicar, guided me through the exhibits at the recent1 RHS Great Plant Fair in London, to explain the intricate process of floral marquee judging. Former reliance on my authoritative ‘staring at [...]

She’s back, on Main Avenue with bells on, and the odd dead tree. The award winning garden designer and all round good egg, Jo Thompson is preparing for her return to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013 with a ground breaking show garden, in partnership with the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera). Thompson brought Chelsea its first Caravan in 2012, and this year her arsenal includes an avenue of [...]

The secret is all in the dough and the tomato sauce, he says. Pineapple is prohibited, but he assures me that Nutella and banana really does make a delicious pizza pud. Adorned with an olympic haul of RHS’s finest gold medals, the garden designer, Adam Frost, is preparing for his anticipated return to the magic that is, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Unfortunately for us, without his snazzy pizza oven. [...]

Following in the footsteps of prissy party-planning Pippa Middleton, our very own Alan Titchmarsh has signed a deal with the nation’s smartest supermarket, and is hence forth to become the face of the new Waitrose gardening range. The nation’s most famous gardener, has been reeled in by the supermarket chain, to develop and launch their new gardening product line, write articles in their magazine, feature on their website, and to [...]

What horse meat scandal? Welcomed with a steamy slice of scalded (beef) lasagna for lunch, the good folks, that are the garden media, congregated at the annual Garden Press Event at the Barbican in London, to peruse all that is new and exciting in horticulture retail. Retailers have been busy; new product launches, diversification of product lines, and cunning marketing strategies. Horticultural retail is buzzing… Start ‘em early Retailers have [...]

‘Paradise haunts gardens’ writes Derek Jarman, ‘and it haunts mine’. In the gardeners ceaseless pursuit of horticultural perfection, one can become blind to the beauty of the garden, detecting nothing but its faults or maddeningly triumphant weeds. Taking stock should mean more than simply registering the new list of tasks that need to be taken care of. Never did I anticipate that the presence of canvas, paint and brushes could [...]