My Gardening story

Inspiration from famous 

Gardeners and Gardens

I am like every other professional 

gardener you will find. 

We all share the same deep desire 

and connection 

with the bare beautiful soil.

What do you mean, I hear you laugh?

Some people are born to love 

the creative and artistic world. 

I am one of those people.

I couldn't be a gardener if I had

 no passion, vision or 

artistic ability.

Famous Gardeners in history 

Let's take a look at what gardening 

was many years ago for women.

Women throughout history 

have made 
gardening so inspirational;
famous gardeners have given

 this to us. 




All those beautifully crafted 

and designed 
gardens all over the world 

were not made without lots 

of planning and design.



 
We really have so much 

to be grateful
 for and to admire. 





What would Gardening be today
without such well known women?

Art in a Rose
is pure beauty

So famous these women were like
Beatrix Potter, 
Gertrude Jekyll,
Vita Sackville-West to name a few, 
that they had roses named after them.



Perfection is this vista
created for effect

So dedicated was Beatrix Potter

 in what she really loved,
she was a gardener and an artist. 



She was also a very skillful 

business woman. 

She left us so many 
properties (in the United Kingdom) 

under the management 

of the National Trust. 



These dedicated women 

had so much 
foresight and skill. 

All inspirational women.

And the stunning Gardens

they have left to be admired. 
Follow with me.

Sweetly scented
Azalea

Their styles, their

creativity, their expertise have all

left us with so much pleasure,

wealth and style in Cumbria,

in Kent, Surrey,

and worldwide.



These women were primarily

 Gardeners;

researching what would grow in

what conditions, and to thrive in.

Simplicity of design at Kew Gardens



What would these famous women
 have thought of this?

Garden design is such an 

individual thing. 

Many public gardens we 

find around the world have 

been created
 in a similar way. 

Carpet bedding, 
as you can see here 
above is of a particular 

style and era.

It is not to everyone's liking

 but it has a purpose. 

It is effective in a particular 

setting like here at Kew Gardens 
where there is so much space.

Personaly I do not like it but

 that is fine as we all have our 
own views and opinions 

about gardens. 




Holyhocks create a 
palette of colour 

These famous women, as mentioned 

above, enlisted the help of other 

professionals 
and together

created some astonishingly

beautifully designed structures; 

as well as perfect companion

planting in fabulous settings.

Follow my journey of 
some famous Gardeners.

See here the

use of natural

stone walls used

to create boundaries 

and land division

in the Lake District.

These famous

women used

nature and found

inspiration from the landscape they were living in

all over the world. I find it absolutely fascinating.

Cornus


Set in a perfect Woodland setting
in the shade
at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire.
(privately owned garden)

Beatrix Potter travelled 

a lot as a young girl to Scotland

 and the Lake District, 

where she got lots of inspiration

 in nature. 

She had a fascination of insects 

and small animals which she would 

dissect and then

draw in great detail.

Some of these drawings were 

later used in her 

famous children's

stories. 



Bearix Potter had such an affinity

 with  all creatures and
plants. 

She really was an extra-ordinary 
woman who I can really 
connect with on so many levels. 



These amazing drawings 

and archives can be seen at 

Hilltop Farm's museum

and also in the museum 

in the village 
of Hawkshead 
(a short bus ride away).

It is really fascinating and worth

 a visit in the

warmer months of the year.




Hilltop, Beatrix Potter's home 

makes me 
feel a real connection with her life. 

Her home was such a creative, 

homely place and such a perfect 

setting for 
her childrens stories. 



When you are there 

you feel like she 

has just stepped out and 

she will 
be walking up the 
front pathway any minute. 



It is such an emotive place 

and you can feel how she
felt almost and how she

 worked away 
with such care and 

determination to make

 such a beautiful life. 

Garden design is
all around us

Gertrude Jekyll, Artist and Gardener, 
travelled to Europe to find
inspiration. 

She travelled
to Turkey and Greece 

for inspiration for her gardens. 


Such passion and enthusiasm 

for beautiful 
gardens makes us realise
how forward thinking she was.

No Gardener whoever they are

can be content without the beauty

of trees to create shade, a canopy

for wild life, or somewhere to sit

and contemplate.

See this fabulous shiny bark

which is so attractive of the wild cherry.

At Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. 

Beatrix Potter planted lots of fruit trees

 in her orchard to keep her going through 

the colder months

. 

She was such a well organised 

and careful gardener.

Some of these privately owned 

Gardens we have 

have become sanctuaries

 to admire and respect.

To take in planting

schemes, admire the

views through

landscaped hedges

and feel at peace as

Beatrix Potter,

Gertude Jekyll and

Vita Sackville-West

would have done.

Small Maple in woodland,
Hatfield House

Trees are such an integral 

part of nature. 

We need trees to admire and 

to nuture for always.

What is a landscaped garden

 without beautiful trees to admire?



How trees can be
trained at RHS Wisley

Gertrude Jekyll was also a writer.

Her planting ideas are very much

 copied to this day.

She lived at Munstead Wood 

in Surrey where she created her garden 

in the Arts & Crafts style.

These Gardens were huge and planting

 on such a grand scale

has to be admired, whatever you 

think about her designs.

Beauty in a summer
 hollyhock

Quotes from Vita Sackville- West

"The whole of Sissinghurst reeks of hops, 

which I find an agreeably Kentish smell. "

"Autumn in felted slipper shuffles on,
Muted yet fiery - Autumn's character.

Brown as a monk yet flaring as a whore."

Part of a poem called " PALMYRA" 

"This is the street of a hundred golden columns,

But the pavement is of sand;

Sand of a desert, a white, a wind-blown

Forgotten strand."

Vita Sackville-West

It is so beautifully captured.

You feel like you are there with her!

Gardeners in my mind are Artists; Gardening is

an art form and words are part of Art.

Have you seen
these beauties?

Flowers are an artists palette. 

Did you know that these roses (below) 

love wooded shady areas?

There is something very special

 to me about

female Gardeners.

I am so respectful of these 

women who have

become so iconic.

The lengths they went to, 

to be successful

and the people they were connected with 

makes it all the more intriguing.

Front porch at 'Hill Top' 





Beatrix Potter would look out of her
bedroom window across
the orchard to see the sheep,
the hill and the trees.

I can picture Beatrix Potter picking her produce and making
jam in her cosy fire warmed kitchen.
I feel her home was the hub of the community.



But it it was not an easy way of making a living.
She lived in a cold climate and had a lot of illness in her life.

Beatrix Potter had a vision 

for her new Garden.

She called in a local stone mason 

to redesign it.

She wanted more space for 

her favourite plants. 

Unusually the Garden was at the

front of the house, and on a hill.

So she created a symmetrical 

pair of borders either side 

of her house. 

Beatrix made flower arrangements

for her house and friends. 

She loved pastel coloured 

stocks 

and poppies

in particular.

Everything was important to Beatrix.

The birds and animals were all a part

of her home.

She grew sea thrift, gentians 

and tiny saxifrages

in an old horse trough. 

Everything had a use.

An old tree here, 

in Beatrix Potter's orchard.

I can see her sitting here 

on the grass gathering

the fruits of her labour. 

A truly amazing woman.

 Where would we be without 

these robust and

adventurous iconic women?

Who created so much and 

to this day,  feel there

are no such iconic people to 

look up to and admire

in the same way.

Beatrix Potter would have
adored these little cygnets

What do you admire about

 Gertrude Jekyll?

 What do you think her life 

was really like?

True beauty of a Rose.



Gertrude Jekyll was a very skilled
designer in her day.



We all love roses in any setting
 but imagine planning a whole planting
scheme
that can be replicated 
over and over again.

We need to live in 

a colourful world of

beautiful plants and flowers 

all around us.

To be successful you do need to be

 focused and work hard.

Was life back in this era less demanding

in a different kind of way?

How do you think 

these women coped

in their world? 

Being creative 

and resourceful and working 

the land in a practical way.

Do you think these resourceful 

women had a much slower 

pace of life?

Summer colour, so fabulous
No flower more popular back then and now.


Everyone loves roses whatever colour.

Border at Waterperry Gardens.
  Oxfordshire





It is now time to remind
ourselves 
that we would
 not have such fabulous
Gardens to visit without
saying a big thanks
 to these famous women? 

Garden canal
 at R.H.S.Wisley



What a quirky artistic piece of
Garden Design this canal is here.

What a clever effect with the
 dark coloured water. 

What would life be like now or 

then without Gardens,

flowers, shrubs and trees to look at?

The beauty of nature

Everyone loves beautiful 

flowers to admire.

The sweet scent of the narcissi, 

spring fragrance for now.

Simplicity of Alpine Gardens