The Manic Botanic

16/10/2026

When we first started this garden I planted berries and used bird netting. Didn’t work. Guess who went and scooched her way under it? The dog. She’d go and eat all the raspberries. The birds would get through the gaps the dog left. And I gave up growing berries for several years. I decided I’d only bother again when I could afford to build a berry cage. And that’s what I’ve now got. Strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries, and a dwarf nectarine tree now inhabit my little berry prison. The birds hate me. The dog feels sad. But we get to eat the berries!

15/10/2026

I’d never been tempted to try these plants before because of our fairly chunky and frequent frosts, but this one was gifted to me. I’ve given it the prime position in my greenhouse and it’s well protected and boy did it reward me. The blooms are enormous and so impressive. So next year, I think I’ll purchase a few more bulbs and expand my collection.

New obsession kicking off!

14/10/2026

I’m a big fan of companion planting as a means to organically control pests in my greenhouse. It’s worked well for several years now. The only time I really have an issue with aphids is early in the tomato growing season when the companions are not very well established. The nasturtiums that act as trap crops are only just getting going. The basil isn’t even planted yet because it needs a bit more warmth before it’ll survive our climate. And things are just generally in the ‘too early’ stage to be of real benefit.

So does companion planting mean you never get bugs? Nope. But it does mean they’re far more manageable when they do appear. I use the manual squashing method and a new trick I learned last year….incense. I picked this one up from Annette Garratt-Clarke and I tested it by holding a smoking incense stick under a quite infested hellebore stem last season. The aphids immediately started squirming and moving away from the smoke. So now I stick a few sticks in the bed close to the tomatoes and let the smoke waft over the plants. It does mean the greenhouse smells like a bit of a hippie commune for a while but I don’t mind the fragrance of musk or sage incense so that’s no problem.

Once the companion plants really get going, I usually never have any further problems with aphids, and by summer the greenhouse is fairly pest free.

So if you’re starting to use companion planting and you see some bugs, don’t despair. It doesn’t deter every pest. It just makes the ones you do get more manageable and they never really cause too many problems.

13/10/2026

It’ll take several years for these rhodos to reach their mature size, but they’re already trying to steal the glory from the peonies. 😆

11/10/2026

Struggling to work out how to plan your garden?

The first thing you need to think about is how do you want to use the space? What activities will you do there?

The next thing you need to do is understand the basic design principles used by landscape designers. All the techniques I’ve used in my garden are contained in my guide, Create Your Dream Garden 2 - design principles.

You can access it either by commenting GUIDE (for those on Instagram) or by clicking the Stan Store link in my bio (Insta and Facebook).

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10/10/2026

Click the link to read this week’s free post.

From the outside, I look like I have my life together.

10/10/2026

It’s probably easy to assume that behind every beautiful garden is someone with relevant horticultural qualifications. But far from it. My qualifications couldn’t be less related to gardening if I tried! I didn’t know a thing about gardening when I first started. I made heaps of mistakes, killed heaps of plants, and learned most lessons the hard way. Over 25 years that’s turned into a depth of experience that means I can now grow a thriving garden. So if you’re at the beginning somewhere, trying and sometimes failing, just keep going. We’ve all been there. The only thing that’ll stop you becoming a great gardener is if you give up.