Best Show Garden at the Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show
April 1, 2026
Over the weekend, Alford and Sowter Landscapes collaborated with Honeycomb Saunas and first-year design students from the Eden Project to deliver an outstanding show garden at the Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show. The event welcomed over 5,000 visitors—an impressive attendance for a county garden society show. Its popularity is well deserved, with an extensive
Beyond the Show Garden: A Conversation with Luke Coleman
February 8, 2026
Earlier today I had the pleasure of catching up with Luke Coleman, garden designer based in Edinburgh, who last year won the prestigious Young Designer of the Year award for his garden Drakkas Drift, exhibited at RHS Wodehouse Woodhouse. Luke is someone I’ve been meaning to sit down with for a while now. He studied
From Shed to Sanctuary – A Contemporary Tea House Garden
January 21, 2026
The garden began as a simple composition: a generous patio, an immaculate lawn, and a shed converted into a bar. With only a single point of access via a 900mm-wide gate, the first stage of the transformation was purely logistical. Fence panels were removed, the gate dismantled, and machinery carefully guided through the narrow opening
Reimagining the Front Garden: My Sand-Planted Lawn Experiment
November 1, 2025
Over the past few years, I’ve watched my front lawn grow increasingly patchy and yellow, particularly during the summer months. Keeping a lush green lawn feels harder than ever — demanding constant watering, feeding, and care. For me, personally, a traditional lawn has never been a high priority. I’d much rather see borders alive with
Beauty, Purpose and Innovation: Highlights from Main Avenue
May 20, 2025
The gardens along main avenue this year are all breathtaking, no doubt about it. That being said there were two that I was really drawn too, time and time again while I was there. On Saturday morning, when Jo Thompson’s garden was bathed in the soft light of early morning sun. The dusky mauves, dark
A Breath of the Wild: Capturing the Poetry of Nature in the Garden
May 9, 2025
The theme of naturalistic planting has been running through the shows and events we have been visiting this spring…