Materials
Chelsea trends: paths to glory

Chelsea trends: paths to glory

Paths that are beautifully crafted are a joy to follow. Chelsea's best...
Rock stars

Rock stars

I'm shopping for stone; and for this rock-geek, an hour in the quarry is like a trip round Selfridges
Chelsea trends: structures

Chelsea trends: structures

Providing vertical interest, a focal point or just a place to shelter from the showers...
Chelsea trends: seating

Chelsea trends: seating

Chic, white and sleek was a trend for seating at this year's show
Chelsea trends: water

Chelsea trends: water

Designers thought hard about their use of water at Chelsea this year to make a splash with the judges
Spotlight on: metal containers

Spotlight on: metal containers

Heavy iron urns, galvanised pots or Cor-Ten rusted steel bowls...even baked bean tins. The range of metal containers we might use is massive.
Concrete proof: a material with pots of style

Concrete proof: a material with pots of style

They may be made of utilitarian building material but these pots have a strong, sharp glamour of their own, while acting as a great foil for the shiny, soft or glaucous leaves of thei plants they play host to. ‘Tuttisuperterra’ is a concrete container system to build green walls and create partitions indoor or outdoors....
Utilitarian chic: the lightweight alternative to pots

Utilitarian chic: the lightweight alternative to pots

These cute, eco-chic containers are an alternative solution to get round the constraints of the creation of a roof garden in town. The 'Bacsacs' are frost and UV-resistant cloth and made from a permeable geotextile fabric and weigh less than a kilo. C'est bon!
Steeling the show

Steeling the show

This original Modernist house in Highgate has been revamped to it's former glory, but the steel structure opens right out to a new, softer side...
Living willow wonders

Living willow wonders

Living willow structures always make me grin like a kid when I see them.And they’re fun and easy to make. The vigour of cut willow canes is so strong that in moist, loamy soil they will root and sprout over winter,  allowing them to be bent and woven into leafy hides and arbours in the...
In praise of water

In praise of water

One of the essential elements within gardens around the world and through the ages...the investment is worth the hypnotic result
The allure of rills

The allure of rills

Rills are small, quite formal, canals of moving water, simple in design and tempting to dip the fingers into. Rills have been used in the oldest garden in history to carry precious water into irrigated fields and into gardens, often through a main axis and spilling into a central pool. In modern gardens too, they...