For those who share my interest in gardening, I’ve picked out a few popular posts:

If you’re creating a cottage garden, or you enjoy the plants you’ll find in one, take a look at my post Recipe for a Traditional English Cottage Garden. I’m taking a lighthearted approach here, but even if you don’t have a thatched roof, you might find a few useful tips.

For a modern interpretation of English cottage garden style, check out my floral lookbook; for a rural idyll, see Hay Time in the Dales; if your taste runs to something more creepy, see my homage to Rappuccini’s garden or sooth your soul with plants for a moon garden.

Expect me to pop in to some of my favourite gardening haunts during the year and report back on what I’ve found: Gresgarth Hall, designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s private garden in North West England, or Harlow Carr, Holehird, Bodnant, or Howick Hall’s sensory garden.

Those who believe a garden without a rose is a garden waiting for a rose are in for a treat. My rose posts include galleries, celebrations of particular roses or rose gardens, and posts about cut roses. One early post explains how I started taking pictures of roses while working at David Austin Roses: Regrets…I’ve had a few. You might also be interested to read my memories of David C.H. Austin, who sadly left us last year.

If you live too far afield to have visited any of the UK flower shows, such as the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show (pictured below), you’ll be able to see a little of what you’re missing here. You might find some inspiration for new plant or colour combinations  – or a new excuse to visit the UK!

Any decent garden is something of a Magical Mystery Tour, but none more than Chihuly’s Garden and Glass in Seattle:

We’ll stroll through some private American gardens too, including Landscape Architect Rick Griffin’s garden, Suzie Cranston’s birdhouse garden, a mock underwater garden and The House Of Their Dreams. Oh, and I’ll introduce you to my sweetheart’s travelling truck garden.

Back home in England, you’re cordially invited to come along to Ashwood Nurseries to learn how their beautiful strain of hellebores, the Ashwood Garden Hybrids, are created…

… or take a look around the Dorothy Clive Garden in Spring when the tulips and forget-me-nots are flowering and the rhododendrons and azaleas at their best.

My blog has many more posts about gardening such as this one about Heyrick Greatorex who dedicated much of his life to our humblest of winter flowers, and gave us double snowdrops with neater, fancier skirts.

I’ve got lots of ideas for snippets to share in the future, including pictures of flowers that catch my eye; sneak peeks into gardens, posts about garden art, and news from my favourite flower shows, plant fairs, nurseries and nature-loving personalities.

Of course my blog’s not only about gardening: you can read my most recent posts here.