August. The days have been hot (again. Finally) the sun beat down mercilessly and the garden is slightly cooked.
The orderly and fruitful times of June are long gone. Back then (it seems a long time ago in the flower beds) the greens were fresh and verdant, the herbaceous perennials were neat little rosettes of leaves and there wasn't a weed to be found. The first roses were just beginning to bloom too - just the odd flower - bringing with them the promise of midsummer and all its bounty.
Off the radar
It's safe to say that recently, I've been a little hard to find. I was tinkering with my website earlier and realised my last blog post was nearly a year ago, and I've barely added any new photos to the site in that time either. I can feel the Instagram business gurus looking down their noses at me as I type! However, I have had a very good (and very cute) excuse in the form of a 6lb 7oz bundle of joy who arrived in late October. Baby Nell was born at home in the small hours of the morning, looking just like her big sister and filling our lives with the wonder and sleep deprivation of a newborn once again. She is terribly sweet and we feel very lucky!
Maternity leave is a funny one for me - I'm spending an awful lot of it thinking I should be doing something when all there is to do is cuddle a baby. My glamorous assistant (aka my husband) is monitoring my inbox and I've got a few KIT days lined up from May, but that still means a lot of naptimes to fill! As a result I've been diving into the boxes of unfinished craft projects with vigour… and getting inspired (distracted!) by new ones along the the way. I keep thinking of things I want to say, want to write about or photograph, but they don't fit the blog as it was and don't make sense on my Instagram. So you may notice a bit of a branding change at the top on this blog, or you might have come from the new Instagram, because we’re taking a bit of a change of direction on here. I’ll still write about flowers and the cutting garden and weddings; but also our homespun adventures through the year, a seasonal exploration of life in a little yellow house on the side of a Devon hill.
Spring Musings
After months of sheltering inside, wrapped in layers of wool, the garden finally called to me last month and with a few days of glorious sunshine forecast, I dragged myself outside. The cutting garden has been sadly neglected over winter – weeds have popped up everywhere and spent annuals, without enough cold weather to fully kill them, had flopped, no longer flowering and barely clinging to their foliage.
Read moreHow Not To Be A Stressed Out Bride
With my two of my siblings getting married over the last two years and one more in the pipeline, we’re getting good at weddings. But still, there’s moments of chaos (despite my brother’s endless Trello lists,) and I was reminded of all the things that I got really stressed out about when planning my wedding. And I was STRESSED. I shouted at my dad about name tags when we were setting up the venue, got two hours sleep the night before and was so exhausted I ended up in hospital with an infected wisdom tooth on the way back from our mini-moon. Not ideal! I've lost count of the number of panicked brides I've reassured and ruffled feathers I've smoothed.
Read moreMy Top 5 Herbs for the Cutting Garden
It is my humble opinion that everyone should make room for a herb garden - whether it’s a couple of pots on a windowsill or a full on knot garden. A touch of fresh herbs can elevate a dish or a drink to something really special, and their fragrance and texture do the same to floral arrangements. Of course, there are countless different herbs and varities, but these are my favourite 5…
Read moreTreasure Hunting
One of my passions is supporting local businesses, especially local farmers. Recently, I've been seeing lots of florists using stems of unripe blueberries in their design work and I fell in love with the amazing colour variations and beautiful foliage. It reminded me of a blueberry farm I'd heard off, and luckily the timing was right and so off we went!
Read moreMay Roundup
I'm writing this (slightly late, as ever) looking over a garden filling up with early summer flowers. The lavender is just opening up, the climbing roses are blooming and foxgloves are towering over everything. We had a glorious May and the garden was grateful for a bit of warmth and sunshine after a cold, wet and snowy spring.
Spring Forward
Spring is here and we are excited. It's been a long winter, not helped by three dumpings of snow in March, and everything in the garden is behind. Dicentra, that's normally in full bloom by now, is just starting to appear above the soil. The hellebores have only been blooming for a couple of weeks and the daffodils in the shade garden are only just budding up. We are ready for some sunshine and some warmth!
Read moreMy Top 5 Filler Flowers for the Cutting Garden
Filler flowers - an essential part of the cutting garden for bouquets and wedding designs, and I'd have countless varieties if I had the space for them! However, I'm working with just a few beds, and have to be very selective about what I grow. I'm growing no more than about 15 different fillers and these 5 are my absolute favourites.
Read moreMy Top 5 Foraged Materials for Floral Design
Our hedges, verges and abandoned corners may look bland and green at first sight but look closer and they are filled with treasure. I'm lucky enough to have friends with fields who don't cut their hedges, but if you don't (and you're not using your materials for profit - see note at the end of this post) then head out for a wander along a verge and see what beautiful things you can find. These are my favourite wild things to hunt for when I'm foraging.
Read moreMarking the Seasons
December is here and with it, all the magic of the season. I LOVE December, especially since moving to the (very cold) countryside. The mornings are crisp and misty, the woodsmoke curling out of chimneys into the cold air and frost whorls on the tops of the gateposts. Our house is filled with pine trees, candles and decorations and my thoughts are turned to giving and celebrating
Read moreMy Top 5 Bulbs for the Cutting Garden
My post the other week on focal flowers quite noticeably left out all spring bulbs because I felt they needed a category all of their own. I love bulbs in spring, they're a cheap and cheerful way to add pops of beautiful colour into the cutting garden, and are especially useful to the hobby florist as they enable you to get the specialist varieties without having to purchase 50 stem bunches from the wholesalers. Now it's November it's the perfect time to be planting them as you clear spent annuals and lift dahlias for the winter.
Read moreA Summer of Flower Crowns
I love teaching workshops, and it's become almost second nature now. It's always wonderful to see people create beautiful things from flowers and over the last few years I've taught countless wreaths and handtied workshops. Recently though, flower crowns have had a real surge of popularity and they were the class of choice for this summer's hen dos. There was a tropical theme with Hawaiian shirts, English country garden flowers in a luxury glamping site* and pinks and yellows in a hidden Devon valley.
Read moreToys to Make at Home
When I'm not creating gorgeous wedding designs or growing flowers in the cutting garden, I can usually be found cosied up inside and making things. And ever since Immy was a tiny thing, I've been making things for her. It started with clothes and blankets but when she started to play and explore my pinterest searches turned more to toys and games that were quick and easy to make, ideally from bits and pieces I already had at home.
The first ones were when she was just old enough to hold things and shake them and, inspired by all the fab sensory bottles they had at our local Children's Centre, I decided to make her some of her own.
Read moreMy Top 5 Focal Flowers for the Cutting Garden
This week I'm thinking about the focal flowers - after foliage this is the next one to be thinking about for your cutting garden, as this is where you need to decide about the stars of your designs. Some are tubers, some herbacious perennials and some are shrubs, but they all need a fair amount of space (although lots are great for problem areas like against walls or shady spots) so set aside as much as you can for them and get planting!
Read moreMary & Tim
Last summer John and I were driving home from a walk on Exmoor when my phone rang. I answered, and my baby sister told me that she had got engaged to the loveliest boy. Immy was asleep in the back of the car so I had to silent-scream with excitement at the wonderful news. So this wedding was naturally the most high pressure one yet!
Read moreMy Top 5 Foliages for the Cutting Garden
Foliage is a funny old thing. People disregard it as just 'greens', but it's the mainstay of almost all floral design. There's a vast range of different textures and colours available, and it's an easy way to fill spaces in the cutting garden and create permanent structure . These are my 5 favourites, all of which are easy to grow in most of the UK.
Read moreTop Five Plants Series
Autumn is here and the garden is slowly starting to wind down for the winter. I'm working with a fairly small space in my cutting garden, beds are precious and only the most beautiful and productive plants get a spot. Even so, there's a lot to do and I've been out over the last couple of weeks pottering about; taking cuttings, planting out and clearing spaces for the spring bulb order that's coming soon.
It's got me thinking about my favourite plants, which ones I'll always make space for, so I thought I'd do a 'My Top 5 Plants for the Cutting Garden' blog post. But after about 30 seconds of writing I realised that would just be impossible - there are far too many! But I've managed to narrow down my top 5 in various different categories, and over the next couple of months I'm going to be sharing these with you, and hopefully inspiring you in your garden planning for next year!
Read moreSummer Foraging
With summer well and truly finished, we've hardly been able to walk past a hedgerow without pulling off handfuls of blackberries. everywhere we walk is accompanied by a very purple Imogen shouting 'more bewwies!' and we've started the great cold-season tradition of becoming 85% crumble. And this is totally normal for us, Autumn is prime foraging time where we go hunting for berries and fruit in the hedgerows and fill the freezer, ready for the long winter. But this is the first year we've really done summer foraging, and I'm really quite excited to look back and show you what we found!
Read moreDIY Larkspur Confetti
We’re in the thick of going-to-weddings season at the moment, three down and one to go! And what is a wedding without confetti? I love it, colourful and fluttery and celebratory. But the paper stuff is a nightmare, staining everything and having to be swept up. I much prefer to make my own from flower petals and larkspur are the absolute easiest to use
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