Does durandii do it for you?
I don’t think there are many plants that make me go weak at the knees. I wish there were more. It’s plantings that are more likely to do if for me – great combinations of plants, bouncing off each...
View ArticleStressing Over Seasonal Aridity
I’m set up for the dry. The only water available is from our tanks, and we really only have enough for the house. For this reason, I don’t grow vegetables over the summer, and the ornamental garden is...
View ArticleExperiencing horti-psychological whiplash
Watch as the German Landscape Architect Bettina Jaugstetter reframes my thinking about successional planting. I go on about what Christopher Lloyd taught me, then Bettina, having listened attentively,...
View ArticleJust give me a year
It’s completely baffling to me how English, American (and, frankly, therefore Australian) gardeners and designers have remained profoundly ignorant of the rigorous research being carried out in...
View ArticleGreat Dixter – the unbearable build-up
Great Dixter is one of my favourite places in the world. Has been for nearly 30 years. I’ve been deliriously happy there and horribly stressed. In that house and garden I’ve experienced high...
View ArticleRecalibrating my planting design thinking
My thinking on planting design has been substantially recalibrated in the last 12 months or so by increased contact with the ground-breaking work of James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett, largely through...
View ArticleThe smaller the garden, the bigger the design challenge
It would be easy to make the mistake of thinking that the bigger the garden, the bigger the design challenge. But the exact opposite is true. The smaller the space, the more discipline is required...
View ArticleA lifetime of exemplary achievement
It’s hard to imagine that it’s even possible that a garden like Trott’s Garden, just outside of Christchurch, NZ, could be created in one lifetime, and by one man. It’s an astonishing achievement by...
View ArticleStraw, Silver, Brown and Black
I remember being blown away when James Van Sweden, speaking in Melbourne in 1989 about his huge plantings of perennials in the USA, told us that many of his clients found that their favourite season...
View ArticleSo what could your garden do better?
No gardener I know is entirely satisfied with their garden. And, curiously, the best gardeners I know are the least satisfied, smug or complacent about their gardens. They’re always pushing for them...
View ArticleWhat is it about Isola Bella?
There’s no doubt that Isola Bella, on Lake Maggiore, is totally and utterly over the top. What’s much harder to work out is how it gets away with this. It charms you into suspending discernment. You...
View ArticleTrust your gut
Every now and again, you’ve got to trust your gut. The head said to spend the day at the eye-poppingly blue Lake Bled, in Slovenia, and maybe have a lazy one, just reading. The gut said otherwise. The...
View ArticleFlaxmere NZ. Try keeping me away
Somehow Flaxmere has escaped my many visits to the South Island of NZ. I’d seen many photos, but nothing prepared me for the epic reality. The vision, the determination, the sheer grit of creator and...
View ArticleSimply the best way to learn about garden design
I can’t think of a more enjoyable – or effective – way to learn about garden design than to do so on the road, visiting exemplary gardens with a group of like-minded people. That’s why I’ve cooked up...
View ArticleA week of indulgence and intent
Talk about serious re-calibration. Through a lot of laughter. We’re one week into our first Travelling Masterclass involving the hungriest group of gardeners I’ve ever travelled with, and we’ve had...
View ArticleTwo weeks of resilience, romance and beauty
WOW! It’s the only possible response to the last two weeks – our very first Travelling Masterclass, taking in, and teasing apart, the best naturalistic perennial plantings in the UK, The Netherlands...
View ArticleA huge few days
It’s a huge few days for The Gardenist in the lead up to the launch of Dream Gardens Season 2, and I thought you might like to keep up with what’s going on in case you have the chance to catch any of...
View ArticleInspiring design for small spaces
When designing a garden, the most fundamental and influential decisions you’ll make are around the shaping, the moulding, and manipulation of space. This isn’t just designer-speak. Whether you like...
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Decades-long dreaming
It’s stupid how long I’ve wanted the rose named ‘Graham Thomas’. I don’t grow roses, as a rule. I’ve no patience or tolerance trying to integrate them into the largely perennial planting that suits...
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Does durandii do it for you?
I don’t think there are many plants that make me go weak at the knees. I wish there were more. It’s plantings that are more likely to do if for me – great combinations of plants, bouncing off each...
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