Author: thomashort

I am a professional gardener who has a love of plants and gardens. I grew up and worked at Mottisfont Abbey Gardens, with a spell at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and managering two gardens in Hampshire and West Sussex as Head Gardener. I am now freelance and spend my time gardening, pruning, planting design, consultanting, speaking and blogging about plants and gardens. I love all forms of gardening but have a soft spot for roses, Geraniums, alpines and Topiary. That said, I love it all!

Plant of the week- Fothergilla major Monticola Group

My plant of the week is the little grown Shrub that deserves to be more widely grown, it sets the garden alight with its autumn colour

Six on Saturday 28/10/17

Well my 6 on Saturday this week features the looks of autumn pretty heavily with seeds, flowers, leaves and spiders making the cut! Hope you enjoy them

Wild about gardening week- a time to look at the basics of life in our garden?

It’s wild about gardening week this week but let’s have a think about the one thing that we all need to survive, the soil

Plant of the week- Sternbergia lutea

My plant of the week is a beautiful autumn flowering bulb, sternbergia lutea, find out more about this beauty

6 on Saturday 21/10/17

Well it’s another 6 things that are looking good on Saturday this week and it comes from a clients garden this week, enjoy

The day giant pumpkins came!

A look into the giant pumpkin competition

Plant of the week- Decaisnea fargesii

My plant of the week has some brilliant common names like Dead mans fingers, purple sausage plant, come and read more about it

Six on Saturday 14/10/17

Sometimes you just get one of those weeks when you are glad it’s the weekend, it was one of those weeks this week! Well to be fair, it was only one day, rest of the week was very enjoyable. Plants and gardens are so much areas for us to enjoy and relax in, to get…

Reducing the strain

Sorry it’s not a post about reducing the work load in the garden or indeed making the house/garden balance better but just a few little thoughts on how to reduce the strain on one of the things our gardens use so much, our hands and arms. All the work we do in our gardens, puts…

Plant of the week-Cercidiphyllum japonicum f.Pendulum

My plant of the week is known as the toffee apple tree, makes the autumn air smell like burnt sugar, have a read and find out more!