Claudy Fox Gardens

01/10/2026

04/09/2026

Future landscapes with drier and hotter summers will benefit from us selecting plants with attractive seed heads that don’t turn to mush. Here’s a few I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks in private gardens and in public spaces..

12/07/2026

What a wonderful day at the new RHS show at Badminton last week. The best bit was seeing fellow CGS garden design graduates and their gardens after a week or two of extremely hard work and challenging hot temperatures. They all smashed it out of the park!
Congratulations Megan Dodd Sophie Leo. And Bristol and Bath networking pals Gemma Lasseter | Garden Designer & Gardener Darren Gillingham too. Lovely to meet Alison Alison Johnston and pick up some great advice. Great company and enforced shade/cold drink breaks from Frondescence | Intentional Living | Coaching & Garden Design .

I was in awe of Tom Stuart-Smith’s large-scale planting and loved the heart-warming details of Jo Thompson’s Archer’s Garden as well as Henry T Pope’s beautiful and sustainable hazel-based artisan garden.

24/06/2026

Updating a tired border can tempt you outside, you may linger longer, spending time in nature - maybe some quiet time to yourself or with loved ones.

Here’s a revamped border of a garden near Bristol. The bees, butterflies and moths love it.. and the cat likes to hide in it. The brief was to add more height and introduce lots of blues, pinks and frothy white. There’s so many flowers blooming at the moment that flowers are cut regularly for my clients to have in the house.

Photos 1-5 showing June
Photos 6-7 showing May
Photo 8 freshly planted Oct 2024
Photo 9 before

17/06/2026

I could have stayed in that garden for hours…

Last week I visited the garden of James hitchmough courtesy of the organised minds of Rosie Treharne | RosemaryTree | Garden Design & Consultancy and Society of Garden + Landscape Designers.

Since completing a course in naturalistic planting design I knew I’d appreciate this labour of love. What I didn’t expect was to hear myself say ‘Wow’ out loud and feel my heart skip a beat when James led us around the house and I saw the first view of his super-colourful gravel garden and the stunning backdrop of the countryside beyond.

Isn’t this why we garden and design gardens? To create places that create smiles.

And of course, it wasn’t just beautiful. This garden provides so much for wildlife owing to the huge diversity of plants chosen to make a complex landscape.

Truly inspirational to see how a mash up of knowledge and research into ecology and human behaviour leads to such beauty.

13/05/2026

A day of beautiful garden inspiration and laughter with mum, auntie and cuz ❤️

So so great to see ‘s ‘Finding Balance’ border which was had a beautifully soft palette and a truly romantic feel.

11/04/2026

Today I attended an inspiring Forest Gardening course led by the very excellent Alex from .treecare.

Forest gardening is a system that mimics the structure a young woodland where the plants grow together and support each other.

It was great to meet so many like-minded people and I’m now excited about creating a multilayered group of plants around the very characterful apple tree in my back garden. Hoping for more opportunities for delicious food as well as helping wildlife of course!💚

24/03/2026

Two great talks in two days!

Firstly it was gardener and nurseryman Roy Diblik, who I first heard about on a naturalistic planting course and subsequently his book ‘The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden’. This was my first visit to the University of Bath’s Gardening Club and it was well worth the visit. Roy posed the question what would plants like you to know about them when you take these 3-6 year old ‘plant children’ home and stressed the importance of getting to know your plants’ growth rate and growth habit.

The next day I listened to an inspiring talk by the land architect, Kim Wilkie, at the beautiful venue of Wyndcliffe Garden School near Chepstow, with the gardens in full spring bulb glory🌷 Kim designs landforms and even new towns in the landscape in response to how water uses the land. He had an infectious passion for promoting living with close proximity to the natural world.

18/03/2026

Almost a year on.. and the crocuses and daffodils have been showing off and the Euphorbia is adding the zing.

Not bad for a front garden made on concrete and a thin layer of gravel.

24/02/2026

Lovely day planting bare root roses and visiting a site with landscaper.

First wash of the year to go outside 🙌