I think, after Broughton Grange, we were all fairly unanimously agreed that Tom Stuart-Smith was a bona fide genius. But just in case you have any remote, lingering doubt, I bring you…(drum roll)…Trentham Gardens. Continue reading
Ascott House and Gardens
I’ve been doing quite a bit of soul-searching over the six months we’ve been back in the UK. Well, perhaps soul-searching is a little overly dramatic, but just trying to work out how we want to live this next chapter of our lives.
Do we live in central London, so it’s convenient for Paul’s work and all the activities this amazing city has to offer? Or do I need more trees? And if we get a house outside London, where do we go and what do we look for? We really have too many options available. Continue reading
The Beth Chatto Gardens
“The site was wasteland, a wilderness lying between our farm and our neighbours. It consisted of a long spring-fed hollow where the soil lay black and waterlogged, surrounded by sun-baked gravel…in one of the driest parts of the country. But it was the extreme variation in growing conditions which intrigued us, the possibility lying before us of growing…plants adapted by nature to different situations.” Beth Chatto Continue reading
Tom Stuart-Smith’s Broughton Grange
It is possible to be winded by a garden? For a place to feel so ‘breath-taking’ your body actually shuts down for a second or two? Continue reading
Landscapes of the Norwegian Fjords
As time goes on I become more and more inspired by nature, observing increasingly stronger connections between garden design and natural landscapes. So whilst our recent trip to Norway didn’t leave me under any illusions that Norwegians, on the whole, are mad keen gardeners, it did leave me that little further along the learning curve when it comes to garden design. Continue reading
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Gardens
I’ve been to the Olympics! Admittedly, four years late.
We seem to have made a habit of missing them, arriving in Beijing – from our then home of Kuala Lumpur – to miss the 2008 Olympics by a matter of days, living on completely the wrong side of the world in 2012 and then leaving the Southern Hemisphere just as the Olympics arrived there this year.
And having not yet bought a TV in London it’s even a challenge to follow from afar, so instead, Paul and I ventured over to Stratford to try and find some Olympic-magic there. Continue reading
RHS Garden Rosemoor
RHS Garden Rosemoor is a garden of two halves. The first, a preserved, real life, family garden extending to eight acres around Rosemoor House, the home of Lady Anne Palmer, who donated her property to the RHS in 1988. Continue reading
A wonderful trip to Devon
With a rainfall in parts of up to 2000mm and a reputation for some of the UK’s worst summer traffic, it’s somewhat curious that Paul and I decided Devon would be a good place to go for our first UK break. Continue reading
Revisiting Sissinghurst Castle Garden
I have something of an obsession with Sissinghurst. I think a little piece of me was left behind when I first visited; a piece of it coming with me forever more. Continue reading
Hatfield House Garden
It was a pretty murky day when we, raincoats donned, set off for Hatfield House. But not to worry, Hatfield was all about the house, the history and the heritage. I’d seen photos of its formal garden but decided that a glimpse out of the window would probably suffice: I didn’t particularly need to see lots of hedges close up. Continue reading
Janna Schreier Garden Design 