It may seem strange to be thinking of fruit trees at this time of year with branches bare and snow on the ground. However, now is a great time to plant fruit trees (as long as the ground isn’t frozen). We are working on two projects at the moment where clients have requested the planting [...]
With a respectful nod to Tom Hoblyn’s ‘Diary of a Garden Designer’ in the Guardian, I thought that it would be fun to share with you what we have been up to recently. It has been pretty typical – fun, frustration and fulfilment in varying measures. I’m going to start on a Thursday, just for [...]
It’s harvest festival time. A time to celebrate and give thanks for the bounty produced in our fields and gardens. Except this year has been a shocking year in the garden and at the allotment. It rained all winter. We had a heatwave in March. It then started raining again and didn’t stop until the [...]
Work has started on the front garden at High Farm. Men with machines have arrived and dug out the existing concrete path. Drawings have been examined. Lots of pointing has been done. There has been nodding. There has been headshaking. Some more pointing. And then they left. It may not seem much, but what has [...]
It is six months since I last wrote about the plans for the gardens at our North Yorkshire studios. I’d like to say that the gardens are completed. They aren’t. Like the decorators with peeling wallpaper and the plumbers with a leaky tap, we are the garden designers with the scruffy gardens. But things are [...]
I’ve spent quite a lot of time in California. Most of the time I was there I was counting down the hours until I could leave. I do see its attractions, however – the mountains, the beaches, the light, the swimming pools……And as the rain pours down outside my studio window onto a grey and [...]
Forgive me reader for I have sinned. It is four months since my last blog post. This blog is the start of a series of pieces I am writing about the gardens we are creating at our North Yorkshire studios. The studios are housed in a Grade II Listed Georgian farmhouse called High Farm, overlooking [...]
With the RHS using its shows to promote ‘grow your own’ and the value of artisan crafts, you would be forgiven for thinking that it sees horticulture and garden design as something that should be inspired by an old episode of The Good Life. However, like Glastonbury last week, the RHS appreciates that progress cannot [...]
There have been two chapters in my working life. Chapter One was law and technology. It was a life working in offices around the world, advising technology and business people how to stay on the right side of the law and the consequences if they didn’t. Chapter Two is horticulture and design. It is a [...]
All sci fi enthusiasts will be aware of the return of the ITV series Primeval. From what I can gather, the series seems to consist of a combination of dinosaurs fighting it out on the streets of the UK with a bunch of experts from an organisation called the ARC successfully repelling them. So far, [...]