A bit about me...
I grew up in a small village near the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park. As a child in an area like that, you are constantly surrounded by nature without giving much thought to it. It was only when I was older and had moved away that I got any sense of how beautiful the area is - and how lucky I was to grow up somewhere like that.
I was interested in environmental protection and sustainability from a young age - I was at primary school in the 80's when primary schools had started teaching about those topics. But I didn't show any particular interest in gardening or plants until my late 20s. Before that I was living in rented in accommodation and didn't feel like spending time on gardens which I might have to leave soon.
After buying my first garden flat, I threw myself into designing the garden and implementing it. I loved the whole process, despite it being a very narrow, north-west facing garden which wasn't the easiest space to work with or grow things in. I was only there a few years. The garden which is the subject of this website is my second garden. I feel like I learned quite a lot from designing my first garden - particularly a better sense of my poor knowledge of plants! I made quite a few poor choices of plants for my first garden - you don't need to be an experienced gardener to spot when a plant isn't thriving, and some of the plants I chose were less than impressed with the conditions, whilst stopping just short of dying!
I don't have time to write a lot here now, but my preferences regarding plants seem to be strongly influenced by the plants which I was surrounded with when I was growing up. I love holly, hawthorn, honeysuckle, berry bushes, apple and plum trees, wild flowers, and all the plants you find in established hedgerows. Having said that, my gardening 'career' is still very young, so my list of favourite plants will doubtlessly grow as I discover new species.
I grew up in a small village near the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park. As a child in an area like that, you are constantly surrounded by nature without giving much thought to it. It was only when I was older and had moved away that I got any sense of how beautiful the area is - and how lucky I was to grow up somewhere like that.
I was interested in environmental protection and sustainability from a young age - I was at primary school in the 80's when primary schools had started teaching about those topics. But I didn't show any particular interest in gardening or plants until my late 20s. Before that I was living in rented in accommodation and didn't feel like spending time on gardens which I might have to leave soon.
After buying my first garden flat, I threw myself into designing the garden and implementing it. I loved the whole process, despite it being a very narrow, north-west facing garden which wasn't the easiest space to work with or grow things in. I was only there a few years. The garden which is the subject of this website is my second garden. I feel like I learned quite a lot from designing my first garden - particularly a better sense of my poor knowledge of plants! I made quite a few poor choices of plants for my first garden - you don't need to be an experienced gardener to spot when a plant isn't thriving, and some of the plants I chose were less than impressed with the conditions, whilst stopping just short of dying!
I don't have time to write a lot here now, but my preferences regarding plants seem to be strongly influenced by the plants which I was surrounded with when I was growing up. I love holly, hawthorn, honeysuckle, berry bushes, apple and plum trees, wild flowers, and all the plants you find in established hedgerows. Having said that, my gardening 'career' is still very young, so my list of favourite plants will doubtlessly grow as I discover new species.