Container ideas for March - easy garden colour right now
Plus: a new zoom date, and we celebrate the women who bring the Chelsea Flower Show gardens together
Hello, and if you’re new here, then you’ve landed in exactly the right place
We’ve waited for it, and we really deserve it - it’s colour time!
It’s been a sunny week here in the UK - we’ve had actual blue skies, which means those tiny spring bulbs have gone bananas and are flowering like crazy. Everywhere we look, there’s new colour, and each day we get a proper early Spring Equinox present (yes I really I think we should celebrate that) as flowers decide that enough is enough and that it’s time to break free.
Today we’re going to have a look at something that I always say I’m going to do, but never actually get round to doing.
There’s another book event.
And a new Zoom date, with the first RHS Chelsea Flower Show update.
I’ve got a sweet little March container idea for you.
Spring is here. Photo: Jason Ingram And the first RHS Chelsea Flower Show preview: I’m going to be showing you one of the roses that I’m hoping to be using in May. I say ‘hoping’ because frankly we never quite know what’s going to be in flower on the day. This time last year it was wet and grey, and it didn’t stop being wet and grey for another three weeks. The slugs were already making their presence felt and seedlings were already being mullered as they came up. Is it too soon to jinx that by saying that this year feels, well, different somehow?
This article arrives on International Women’s Day, and I celebrate the extraordinary team who bring these Chelsea gardens together.
There’s The Table of Spring update.
A quick thank you very much for all your feedback on the 5-plant recipe section: the consensus is that we carry on with it, so do look out for the next one in a couple of weeks.
We are strong, we laugh, we occasionally weep, we talk, we listen, we resolve problems, we find solutions to all and we create something beautiful. And even though our bodies may be wrecked by the end of it, it’s like a spa for the mind. I wouldn’t miss it for the world
Before we get going, welcome to subscribers old and new - it’s been another wonderful week for new subscribers, and I want to give you a great big welcome into the Gardening Mind fold.
As you’ll soon discover, it’s a super-friendly place, and whether you like to quietly observe or join in with the Chats and courses, I think you’ll have found your people. That’s what it feels like to me. If you’re feeling that, come and join to get the full experience of this gorgeous (you really are) online gardening community:
I host Zooms for paid subscribers where I explain to you how to find your way around The Gardening Mind. Here’s the next one for your diaries: ‘RHS Chelsea Flower Show - a first glimpse behind the scenes’ on Tuesday 1st April at 6pm UK time. This will be for paid subscribers.
Feel free to come and join us for 30 minutes of my showing you around TGM- it’s an excuse for a get-together!
If you’re new to gardening, do check out the How to Garden section: there’s handy advice on all sorts, eg how to sow seeds and how to buy plants at a garden centre. And lots more.
If you’re here because you’re interested in creating your own garden design, and you’d like to catch up on the Small Garden Design Course, you can find a full-round-up of all the assignments and articles, in chronological order, here. So whether you’re just about to join in for the first time, or if you want to catch up, you can find each relevant piece to work through at your own pace here. Look out for the next post next week.
The Chat is a huge part of this gardening community - if you’re a paid subscriber, you can start conversations, ask gardening questions, and post photos. This Chat has taken on a life of its own, so do make the most of it. On Sunday‘s regular Show Us Your Plots on the Chat, you can show us what your garden, or any green space near you, is looking like - we’d love to see - and the best thing, no-one’s judgemental and everyone’s delighted to see garden-related anythings. All-comers from everywhere are welcome: we have members from all over the world - that’s 50 US states and 162 countries, including one in Iceland and one in Peru, a fact which makes me really happy.
However - we currently have NO MEMBERS IN SVALBARD which makes me realise that I long for us to have a Svalbard member1, so if you know anyone who lives there, do please pass on the message?! And if you’re that Iceland or Peru member - thank you! We love you!
The New Romantic Garden is back in stock in most stores, with a reprint underway. Thank you so much if you’ve bought it and left a review: it means the world.
I nearly fell over when I read the review by Claire Masset in this month’s Gardens Illustrated:
“Just like Britain’s horticultural heroine Gertrude Jekyll, Jo Thompson sees gardening as art. The comparison is apt. Both share an Arts and Crafts-inspired respect for a place’s past and locality, a desire to create emotion-inducing plant harmonies, a long list of happy clients, and a brilliant pen. With an emphasis on biodiversity and sustainability, Thompson offers us a redefining for the 21st century of the quintessential English garden style – a style that just over 100 years ago, Jekyll helped to define. I wonder whether Thompson will go down in history in a similar way?”
Honestly, a review like this means the world and I’m hoping you don’t mind me celebrating it with you. It was a such gamble to tell my publishers that in this book, rather than just being a ‘here’s another garden I’ve designed’ book, I wanted to somehow try to explain the process of making the feel of the garden, the atmosphere, the personality of place - all of these intangibles which so often get overlooked. So when I read a review like this which gets it, I utter a great big PHEW.
It was absolutely brilliant to meet Gardening Minds at Rodmarton Manor this week - I would absolutely adore to see you at one of these talks if you haven’t yet booked. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of you at the launch at the Garden Museum - this is sold out, but more events are being planned and there’s a new one in this list:
I’ll be at the V&A on 25th March with Jo Fairley - I know a lot of you who couldn’t get tickets for the Garden Museum are coming to this, and it’ll be just as much fun!
On Tuesday 8th April, I’ll be at one of my favourite bookshops, Sevenoaks Bookshop, with the brilliant Marianne Jones: tickets are available here.
On Tuesday 24th April, I’ll be at Gravetye Manor. More details are here. The winner of the ticket giveaway has been notified but there are still some tickets available.
On the evening of Thursday 10th April, I’ll be signing books at The Star in Alfriston - please come and join me for a glass of something and a chat. Details here.
For US members: on Thursday May 1st I’ll be speaking at The Garden Symposium held in the beautiful grounds of Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum. Tickets are available here.
There will be more events announced in the next couple of weeks 🌱
Container ideas, a garden project that I never seem to get round to, and a Chelsea Flower Show preview just for Gardening Minds
Have you seen the colour that’s popping up around? The spring table is positively bustin’ out all over and I’m thinking I should maybe ‘elevate’ its name to The Table of Spring - what do you think?
A whole lot of other tiny spring flowers are racing to catch up: scilla, crocuses and primulas are sprinkling that early season magic and their excellent dose of Vitamin N(ature) is hitting the spot. They’ve have inspired this month’s container idea later in this article.
But before I get onto that, I’m thinking of various ways to display all this colour in order to be able to appreciate as much of that magic as possible. This got me to thinking about the one thing that I see every year and the one thing I never get round to doing, which I then get really cross with myself for as it would create a garden showstopper all year round if only I applied myself for just a few minutes.
Will this be the year to do it? It’s so simple and I’m thinking we could have a go. Have a look at this: