Leave the grasses standing
Do not cut back the miscanthus or the stipa until February. They hold the frost, they feed the birds, and they are the only thing moving in a coastal garden in January. Cut them the week the snowdrops open.
Notes from the beds
Short notes written in the season they are about. Mostly for clients, open to anyone.
Twelve plants that love sand
Sea kale, Eryngium, Verbena bonariensis, Stipa tenuissima, Santolina, Perovskia, Euphorbia characias, Nepeta, Armeria, Crambe, Salvia nemorosa and, when all else fails, marram grass. Water them in once and then leave them alone.
The first June is a lie
New borders look thin in their first June and everybody panics. Do not fill the gaps. By the third year the plants you were about to buy would be fighting the ones already there. Mulch, wait, and take a photograph to laugh at later.
Branches, not bouquets
For a room you live in, one cut branch of blackthorn or quince will outlast any bouquet by a month and cost nothing. Change the water weekly and cut an inch off the stem.