Michael Cooke Garden Design

13/06/2026

I have much to do, and with a mind that rarely rests, I’ve rediscovered the calming effect of raking oak leaves into neat mounds - which is lucky, because there’s plenty more where they came from…

leaves

06/06/2026

Clear and cold, a perfect winter Sunday. It’s such a satisfying feeling seeing a healthy pile of fresh split firewood knowing it will keep the house cosy this winter, and the smell of woodsmoke when I’m walking through the garden is almost as good as the warmth.

26/05/2026

A home garden should be a sanctuary no matter how small. A safe, secluded escape where meals can be enjoyed with friends and children can grow. This place is timeless, effortlessly cool - it has it all and it’s only three years old.
Carefully built and maintained by the team it will be aired this Saturday night on where the owner and I talk with .

16/05/2026

16/05/2026

Birds and bees are the Sunday soundtrack, the garden enlivened by falling foliage in swoops of orange and gold.

07/02/2026

It’s been a summer of relentless heat, but the weather has been kinder to us here than many others for which I’m grateful. There’ll be plenty more hot days when I’ll work under sunny skies and swim in the pool, but already the sun is rising an hour later, there are tiny cyclamen flowers appearing on the driveway ( thank you Wendy ) and just this morning I caught a whiff of apricot scented Osmanthus. By the front gate there’s a half hidden clump of old fashioned pink belladonna lilies, they’re so nothing I forget about it all year, besides the two or three weeks it blooms and I bury my face once more to delight in it’s unique ‘pink’ fragrance.

14/01/2026

With precipitation after extreme heat just when we were getting desperate, the garden is looking happy.
Lilies are the beauty queens of my garden and this summer they’re stealing the show.
The terracotta pots atop the bamboo stakes are there just because I like the way they look, and I have hundreds of them stored in my tool shed, which unused are otherwise taking up valuable shelf space.

08/01/2026

We all knew we were going to swelter today- and we did. Up before the light to water the pots and nursery and some extra time with a hose to keep the garden happy. Water bowls and birdbaths filled for the wild creatures.
We sat talking about the day’s happenings under the pergola shaded by the wisteria sipping a gin a tonic, and later followed the last light tonight to the orchard where the path is bordered with tall bronze fennel in flower and seed where the air is aniseed scented to the white Leonotis.

02/01/2026