Thursday 19 March 2020

Ideas for planting containers

Your outdoor space, whether it's a balcony, courtyard, or garden, is precious. It could become a lifeline and a haven in the next few weeks and months for anyone who is self-isolating, whether as a precaution or in quarantine.

Simply brightening up your space with a plant in a pot, or growing some herbs, or combining a few different plants in a container or border, will give you pleasure and something to nurture.

Plants in containers can be a mix of foliage and blooms, or a pot filled with one glorious blossoming plant.

Grow herbs, such as this mix of basils, indoors on a sunny windowsill.

Left: Tillandsia, or airplants, survive without soil and just the occasional mist of water. Right: a simple arrangemnt of plant pockets on a wall can house a mini-herb garden.

Various succulents can live happily in a shallow bowl.

Try repurposing mugs, cups, bowls or tins as miniature plant pots - just remember to drill a hole in the bottom for drainage.


Breathing fresh air, hearing birdsong, seeing spring flowers in bloom and new leaves unfurl, is life-affirming and raises the spirits.

Thursday 12 March 2020

Topiary at Felley Priory

An early spring visit to the walled garden at Felley Priory, Nottinghamshire today. Parts of the priory date back to 1156, and today, the garden is justly renowned for its incredible topiary, the snowdrops (now just going over) and the summer herbaceous borders.


I was particularly struck by how beautifully tended and cared-for the plants were overall, from the carpet of hellebores to the magnificent wall-trained Magnolia grandifloras. Well-stocked nursery, too -