GA Landscapes

09/10/2026

The older generation out in force today! Margaret’s neighbour enjoying the autumn sunshine with her 17-year-old dog, while Toby gets on with the brickwork. 🧱🐾

Margaret Ferris

04/10/2026

An early October morning at Bedgebury National Pinetum.

After yesterday at the Great Dixter Plant Fair and an evening around the bonfire in Northiam, Dave Ford and I spent the night nearby in our camper vans with the dogs, before heading to Bedgebury early this morning for breakfast and a walk through the Pinetum.

Beautiful October sunlight and plenty of autumn colour beginning to develop. A few things particularly caught my eye — Araucaria araucana planted amongst the pampas grass near the entrance, the striking upright form of Picea abies ‘Cupressina’, and the stunning autumn colour of Fraxinus americana (white ash).

Also looking particularly good were the brilliant yellow foliage of Ginkgo biloba, the distinctive leaves of Quercus variabilis (Chinese cork oak), and Acer saccharum beginning to colour up.

A particular highlight was the Leyland cypress avenue — an unusual and surprisingly effective use of such a familiar tree.

A lovely October morning to explore the collection, with plenty more autumn colour still to come.

21/09/2026

Rust Never Sleeps

Four years of owning this rather distinctive green tipper, and inevitably the rust is beginning to show in places.

A weekend spent cleaning it back, treating it and repainting the underside. Maintaining the vehicles and machinery may be a largely unseen part of running a landscaping business, but keeping on top of it makes all the difference.

Hopefully a few more years left in the old truck yet ! And of course us too 😀😀

20/09/2026

17/09/2026

The Plantation Garden, Norwich

After the scale of Sandringham, this could hardly have been more different.

I only found the Plantation Garden by chance. My friend Dave Ford suggested it that morning and, when I looked it up, I immediately recognised it from an article I had seen in The Garden magazine over 20 years ago. Somehow the images had stayed in my memory.

Created within an old quarry, it is a remarkably complete little landscape. Enclosure, changes of level, winding paths, planting, water and wonderfully eccentric structures combine to create a world entirely of its own.

For me, it encapsulates much of what good garden design should do: stimulate the imagination, allow room for a little eccentricity and not take itself too seriously. It makes you excited to explore what comes next — almost returning you to that childhood instinct to investigate a landscape.

A small garden, but a very special one.

13/09/2026

With the recent coverage marking 25 years since 9/11, I found myself looking again at these photographs of my best friend, Stewart MacNeill, and me arriving in New York—with the Statue of Liberty on one side and the Twin Towers on the other.

It is also now 30 years since, aged 22, we cycled approximately 3,000 miles across America in 42 days. We had both quit our jobs and found ourselves with a short window between July and September to do something adventurous before deciding what came next. We chose to cycle across America.

We flew into Seattle without bicycles, slept for the night and woke the following morning to look for a bike shop in the Yellow Pages. We bought our bicycles and equipment and, by that afternoon, were cycling out of Seattle on our way across the country.

We camped wherever we could and ate extremely frugally—which perhaps explains why there wasn’t much left of me by the time we reached New York. Our equipment was fairly basic too: no Lycra and when it rained, large bin bags served as our waterproofs.

It was an important turning point in both our lives. Soon afterwards, I began studying landscaping at Merrist Wood, while Stuart embarked upon his career in accountancy/ finance.

Faded photographs from a different time, but memories of quite an adventure.

12/09/2026

Sandringham — a garden in transition

Returning to Sandringham for the first time since July 2019, I was struck by just how much the gardens have changed.

I began by turning left into one of the older woodland walks — mature trees and shrubs, wonderfully peaceful, with very little demanding attention. From there I emerged into the new Long Borders, with their much richer perennial planting. I enjoyed them, but the contrast made me realise just how much I value the quieter passages in a garden.

In 2019, Sandringham felt remarkably calm and spacious, particularly the relationship between the house and its great expanse of lawn. Today there is considerably more horticultural interest, with new gardens, borders and extensive tree planting. There also seems to be an obvious enthusiasm for acers, oaks and magnolias, judging by the multitude of newly planted specimens.

Much of the new work is interesting, and I thought some of the formal areas worked particularly well. But I do wonder whether, with so much being introduced, a little of that former sense of space and calm is gradually being lost.

It reminded me slightly of the way RHS Wisley has evolved — an extraordinary concentration of horticultural ideas and experiences, but sometimes leaving me missing the quieter spaces between them.

Of course, historic gardens cannot stand still. Climate change, rising costs and the need to engage today’s visitors mean these places have to evolve. Perhaps that is one of the great challenges facing our historic gardens: how do we allow them to move forward without losing the character and sense of place that made them special in the first place.

11/09/2026

Bressingham Gardens, Norfolk
I’d known the name Blooms of Bressingham for most of my horticultural career, but somehow had never visited the gardens themselves.
Alan Bloom began creating his famous Dell Garden in the 1950s, pioneering herbaceous perennials in free-standing island beds. Adrian Bloom later developed Foggy Bottom, combining conifers, trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials.
Walking into Foggy Bottom gave me a strange sense of recognition. I was an RHS Wisley student from 1999–2001 and helped RHS committees at shows including Chelsea, where Blooms of Bressingham were regular exhibitors. More than 25 years later, the planting immediately reminded me of those displays.
I particularly noticed Quercus palustris ‘Green Pillar’ framing the entrance to Foggy Bottom, but the Miscanthus collection was a highlight. I regularly use M. sinensis ‘Morning Light’ and have planted it twice this year; together with the one in my own garden, all have performed remarkably well through the dry conditions.
At Bressingham, ‘Mistral’ was superb with Allium senescens and Anemone hupehensis ‘Splendens’. Other intriguing plants included ‘Daylight Alchemy’ with Perovskia ‘Blue Haze’, the mysterious compact GHFVSP16, and a possible M. sinensis ‘Foehn’ — several identities still to unravel!
I was equally taken by the old flint walling, gracefully curving and sweeping up and down through the garden. As well as retaining the beds, it gives structure and creates raised positions for displaying dwarf plants.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most was seeing such a historically important garden — or really two gardens in one. Alan Bloom’s Dell and Adrian Bloom’s Foggy Bottom represent two distinct approaches and generations of planting, yet together they tell a much bigger story about Bressingham and its influence on British horticulture. It was fascinating to look beyond the individual plants and combinations and see the bigger picture — the structure, craftsmanship, history and evolution of the gardens over time. A worthwhile trip and I hope the Bloom name and its horticultural legacy continue to flourish for many years to come.

07/09/2026

From the archive — a garden nearly 30 years on

I first worked in this garden around 1999, while studying at Merrist Wood College. I worked here as a gardener in my spare time, and one of the projects I undertook was designing and installing the ornamental trelliswork around the existing rose garden.

I still remember the rather onerous task of painting every piece of trellis in Cuprinol Shades ‘Holly’!

At the time, the rose garden was heavily overshadowed by some enormous Leylandii conifers. I subsequently felled the Leylandii and replanted the surrounding beds, bringing considerably more light into the garden and giving me the opportunity to introduce a much more interesting range of planting.

Looking back at the old photographs now, it is fascinating to see just how much the garden has changed.

Two of the trees I planted have performed exceptionally well: Catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’ and Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Fastigiatum’. Once relatively small additions, they have developed into substantial trees and are now important elements of the garden’s structure.

The planting has continued to evolve too. The original box hedging was eventually removed after suffering from box blight, with the client replacing it with Euonymus japonicus ‘Green Spire’ to retain the clipped evergreen structure of the rose garden.

The original trelliswork eventually reached the end of its life and has since been replaced by the clients in a different, unpainted style. These old photographs are therefore also a rather nice record of the original design, with its curved sections, finials and dark green finish.

Gardens inevitably evolve. Structures are replaced, planting matures and owners make their own changes. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of landscaping is having the opportunity to return many years later and see what has endured, what has changed and how the decisions made all those years ago have shaped the garden that exists today.
A newly finished garden is really only the beginning.

Archive photographs c.1999 / garden in 2026.