Special Plants Nursery & Garden

When we are in the Cotswold, we like to save a Tuesday for a visit to Special Plants Nursery.   Weekly on Tuesdays, Derry Watkins throws an open garden around her home.  This week’s subject was grand, The Humble Umbel.

Arvensis Perennials Nursery

We are back to Arvensis Perennials with our friend and fellow gardener Julia.  Their demonstration garden has filled in very well over the last eight years.  

This wholesale nursery provides plants to some of the best garden designers in England.  What a beautiful selection. 

Arundel Castle

We were excited to see Arundel Castle gardens after watching Carol Klein’s show.  But it is closed on Mondays, although their website clearly stated otherwise, the day we were in town.  So here some exterior shots of the castle and the village of Arundel. 

Denmans Garden - England

After being disappointed by the closure of Arundel Castle on Mondays, not what their website stated, but oh well.  We got to this delightful four acre garden with a good design history.

Hinton Ampner

Since our morning garden was closed, we had extra time in the afternoon.  We looked up near-by gardens on gardenvisit.com and found this Grade II Tudor house along with a twentieth century gardens owned by the National Trust.  

Gravetye Manor - Luncheon

Our next garden on this road trip around England is Gravetye Manor for drinks on the lawn, garden tour, luncheon, and finally coffee on the terrace.  We are not staying in the house this time.  A sunny and warm day to enjoy this masterpiece.   Garden is only open for guests staying overnight in the house or reserved a table for lunch and afternoon tea I recall.  The best way to experience this garden.

RHS Wisley Garden

Our first stop on our 2024 Road Trip around England and Wales.  Our last visit to this garden was in 2012 and lots has changed in twelve years.  

This is the plan….

 English gardens, farm fresh food and quirky authentic culture…

Evolution of Bernal Heights Cottage Garden

I am starting my twenty-first year tending to this cottage garden on Bernal Heights near Holly Park.  Last year, the previous owner told me she was selling and moving into an assisted care apartment in Healdsburg.  I thought that was the end of this job.  But the new owner turned out to be the next door neighbor and wanted me to continue to work this garden and also take on theirs.   They built a new fence between the two spaces with two openings that will eventually connect the two gardens.  Lots of opportunities here and I look forward blending these areas together. 

Bay Street Perennial Beds

 Three beds of perennials: Forest Edge, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Meadow bed.   Here is the third in a series highlighting the gardens I am hired to take care of.   This post shows you all eight years, in reverse order, since I designed and grew this garden.  

After viewing this video clip again, I realized I should have cut that digitalis out of that bed.  That purple ruined the entire sweep.   I knew it when I took the video, but I have difficulty cutting back prime self sowers.

Book Review - The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book

By Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence

Since returning from England in 2023, I decided to stop reading the news every morning with my coffee and started reading my gardening books as my morning ritual.  I have not read most of my gardening books from cover to cover.  But since I changed my habit, I have finished over a dozen or more.   So I am starting a new series about my book collection.

First up a book I have had since my City College Horticultural days.  It is a simple premise that doesn't require a full book to understand although there are good ideas throughout, mostly for vegetable gardening.   Mulch your soil with hay and over a course of three years, you will see a dramatic improvement in your soil.  I am one that believes that I am really tending to the soil and the plants are on a separate level.  

MUG’s Personal Garden with Nursery

 This is my small urban garden located in the Mission Delores neighborhood of San Francisco.   I have gardened this small strip since 2003.   Lots has happened here over this period and its current theme in the long border is spring pinks, blues and whites moving into summer reds, yellows and blues.  

Some still photos of the long Spring/Summer border.

Potrero Hill Cottage Garden

 In 2018, I started maintaining this front cottage garden.  It was planted with the typical one-offs that survived our dry summers, that included horrible things like phormiums and loropetalum with the ever present tibochina.   But I took on this space for its potential.   A single story Victorian with stereotypical San Francisco wood details with the white picket fence.  

Now the days have overtaken the night, things have gone boom. 

This was taken last year on May 30, peak bloom.

More stills from May 30, 2023:

RHS Hyde Hall Excursion 2024

My past visits to gardens, in England and elsewhere, were always curated to show the beautiful, curious or informative.    First photographs excluded people or other garden visitors.  Focused only on the plants and their vignettes.  Then It was the celebration of how many people (mostly English) were at these gardens especially the flower shows.  This past visit I filmed more in video rather than still photos.  I was trying to show how movement plays into experiencing these gardens in person.  The subtle movement of the air or a sequence to show perspective and other physical attributes.  

M&F Micro Group Garden Excursions for 2024

Frank Eddy and I, Michael Collins (M&F), have been traveling to England most years since 2012.  Fulfilling a desire to see all these magical gardens we've only read about was the reason for our first trip over there.   But we found something much bigger.   An cerebration of nature and the expression in green spaces.   The UK has a land mass about 60% of California.  But they have 26 million more people there.   They utilize every bit of space but nature is very important to them and make it fit in everywhere.   Since 2014 we have wanted to share that with our friends and colleagues back home.   

This year is exciting because we got bold.  We're offering three distinct tours from three very different parts of England.  Yes each has beautiful folksy villages but with very distinct regional differences.  We've put together a string of gardens to show the history of gardening in England; along with Botanical gardens, Royal Horticultural Society plant driven gardens, and display gardens from some of the most renown nurseries in the UK.

You can't create a beautiful garden if you have never seen one.