Festivals

The most prestigious flower show in the world, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, usually takes place in May but, finally took place at the end of September this year. Having been cancelled for two years in a row, it was a fabulous celebration of autumn with 27 gardens in total of different shapes and sizes. A […]

Photo credits Ania Shrimpton and the ValleyFest team ‘Valley Fest’ kicked off the party for the summer being one of the first festivals to take place for over a year and everyone was certainly ready to let their hair down and enjoy the celebrations. It takes place every year in the valley looking over the […]

The summer is here, gardens, events and festivals are open with planting and ideas to inspire us, so lets get out there explore and enjoy them. Photo Credit – RHS / Neil Hepworth RHS Hampton Court Flower Festival took place at the beginning of July and those of you that made the journey to visit […]

I was horrified to read recently that our bug life is in a “catastrophic decline” with “several species being endangered” and “the start of a mass extinction on the horizon”. This is devastating news for the biodiversity of our gardens and wildlife globally. We, garden designers, landscapers and all gardeners, amateur or otherwise, with a […]

Spring has finally arrived, with a hint of sunshine and warmth in the air, the birds are singing, a low humming of the bumble bee can be heard and the bulbs are emerging from the ground as our gardens start to wake from the winter months. The bulbs are already working hard and starting to […]

As I sat, last weekend, in our beautiful Somerset countryside, in a gently sloping lakeside meadow, looking out over chew valley lake which provided a sparkling backdrop, edged by the rolling Mendip Hills, to the ever growing ‘ValleyFest’, with the varied sounds of music playing on several stages and aromas of great food and drink […]

RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Festival has a new name and a new look with a new vibe and there really couldn’t be a better venue, set in beautiful parkland with an historic castle as its back drop, for the worlds greatest and largest flower festival celebrating first and foremost our fabulous world of horticulture […]

RHS Chatsworth Flower Show has again been a huge success this year with some great gardens on offer to enjoy and take inspiration from, my favourite being the shows feature garden which was packed full of ideas for enticing more wildlife into gardens – from the beautiful planting and natural bordering hedges providing space for […]

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 is here again and it is a huge success with design, planting and landscaping ideas to take home to inspire us.   This year’s show is stunning and has a very strong theme of woodland and water, natural green planting with hints of white, yellow and blue or purple, it […]