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What a start to September! My first Root of the Matter column for Gardeners’ World Magazine asks whether you should follow the rules for colour in the garden, or be as bold and clashing as you like.
My answer, from the piece itself: “Colour isn’t decoration. It’s a language.” Read more
And just as honestly: “A garden is not a colour chart, and it is definitely not a test of good taste.”
There’s a lot more besides!
Super excited to read my fellow Root of the Matter columnists as their pieces appear: Kate Bradbury (@kategbradbury), Amy Chapman (@inthecottagegarden), Andrew Jackson , Errol Reuben Fernandes (@errolreubenfernandes), and Lucy Chamberlain .
I’m beyond excited to be part of the @gardenersworldmag crew.
Read more of my thoughts on being brave with colour in your garden on page 49 (not 39 as the caption says, silly me), September issue, on shelves now.
Have you seen it yet? Forgive me, I HAVE to ask!
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#GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
I’m beyond excited to be part of the @gardenersworldmag crew, and you’ll find me on page 49 of the September issue, out now.
Have you seen it yet? Forgive me, I HAVE to ask!
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#GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
Home, lived outdoors. That’s the brief behind every garden we design, whatever the site.
A look across some of our residential work: naturalistic planting holding its own against contemporary architecture, structure through clipped domes and grasses, colour that carries into late summer,Read more and always, spaces built for the people who’ll actually use them.
Different sites, different clients, the same thinking throughout.
Plants chosen for movement and habitat as much as looks.
Design that serves the architecture instead of competing with it.
Bold. Vibrant. Biodiverse. Plants, people, place, purpose.
If your project needs this kind of thinking, get in touch.
ann-mariepowell.com
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#LandscapeArchitecture #GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
Late summer’s palette deepens as the light turns golden, and everything that’s been working quietly in the background suddenly summons itself and muscles in, becoming the whole show.
Grasses backlit by evening sun.
Seed heads building structure while flowers are still Read morecoming.
Hot, saturated hues in copper orange, regal purple, vivid crimson.
Tones that absorb and glow in the heat, revelling in the warmth of the day.
The Late Summer chapter of A Year of Colour covers this season fully, with planting combinations I’ve developed at home and used in projects for years.
Drifting into late summer: Anethum graveolens ‘Mariska’ with Pennisetum orientale ‘Flamingo’ and Trifolium rubens. Warm-toned and meadow-like, with a wafting quality that brings pollinators through until the first frosts.
Bringing vertical voltage: Verbascum chaixii ‘Sixteen Candles’ rising against Verbena bonariensis, Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora ‘George Davison’ and Agastache ‘Blackadder’. Theatrical without being overwhelming.
In copper and amethyst: Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’, Betonica officinalis ‘Hummelo’ and bronze fennel. The combination that looks naturally casual and is anything but accidental.
All photographs by Julie Skelton, taken in my own garden across a full year. There’s a combination in here for every single month.
And with each season fully covered, there are no gaps, no guesswork.
Comment COLOUR or COLOR and I’ll send you the link to order, wherever you are in the world.
Photography: @julieskeltonphoto
A Year of Colour (@franceslincolnpub for @quartobooksuk)
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#PlantingDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse #AYearOfColour
Before the menu, the garden. Plants that inspire a kitchen. A kitchen that inspires the planting.
The Cosmos at Borde Hill is Restaurant Isca’s aperitif garden, one of four quadrants in the walled garden our studio reimagined, each with a different flavour.
Anchored by several Read moreAgriframes domes, the borders brimming with everything you see and everything you’ll eat. Edimentals, chosen to do two things at once.
Within Isca’s garden you’ll find Glycyrrhiza glabra (liquorice), Drimys lanceolata ‘Red Spice’ (mountain pepper), Debregeasia edulis ‘Elite’, and Zanthoxylum simulans (Sichuan pepper). The menu and the border, the same conversation, but whole new food stories.
It’s already caught the attention of the press, with recent features in both The Telegraph and The Independent. More on that soon. Right now, has it got yours?
Have you visited, or is that on the list?
Comment COSMOS for the full Walled Kitchen Garden story.
@iscabordehill @bordehillgarden @agriframes
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#LandscapeArchitecture #GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
A south-facing slope above the River Ems, chalky South Downs soil, and a plot that narrows to a point at the bottom. That’s how the brief began at Shepherd’s Cottage.
Jackie and Alan Sherling came to us shortly after moving to their cottage in Stoughton, Chichester, in 2014. The Read moreconditions were challenging: hot, dry, thin chalky soil on a slope with an awkward triangular shape, and a brick and flint wall hidden behind shrubs that had no business being there.
What made the project exceptional was Jackie herself. She had a strong eye, clear ideas, and the willingness to revise and evolve as the garden revealed itself over the years.
The curved yew hedging was Ann-Marie’s concept. The bobbly clipped balls Jackie later shaped it into are very much her own. The planting evolved as species came and went on that punishing slope. Some gardens settle. This one kept becoming.
We’re delighted that Shepherd’s Cottage features in Sussex Life this week, and honoured that it has a full chapter in Clare Foggett’s beautiful new book, Beauty and Abundance: British Cottage Gardens (Quadrille).
Clare Foggett has been editor of The English Garden magazine since 2015. She writes about gardens with genuine warmth and affection, and it’s a privilege to have our work featured in this book.
The garden opens for the National Garden Scheme by arrangement, April to September. Details at @ngs_gardens
Photography: @jonathanbuckleyphotography . Adapted from Beauty and Abundance: British Cottage Gardens by Clare Foggett (Quadrille).
Comment: COTTAGE for a link to your DMS of the whole article.
@drjackieblackman
#LandscapeArchitecture #GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
The single best cooling tool in any garden? A tree.
A large, well-established tree pumps hundreds of litres of water vapour into the surrounding air every day. That alone can drop the air temperature beneath its canopy by several degrees. It shades the soil and helps it hold moisture. No Read moreparasol or pergola comes close.
I was one of several designers Katrina Harper-Lewis spoke to for @houseandgardenuk’s piece, published yesterday, on gardens that cope with heat.
The photograph in the piece is Julie Skelton's shot of one of our gardens, chosen because it demonstrates the principles at the heart of the piece: shaded paving, wooden benches, lush layered planting doing the work that hard surfaces can't.
"The garden that feels coolest on a scorching day is the one with the deepest canopy, the least hard surfaces, and the most water still moving through the soil beneath your feet."
If you want to read all the designers' recommendations, type COOL in the comments and I'll send you the link.
Photography @julieskeltongarden
@houseandgardenuk
@kat_lifestyle_ed
#LandscapeArchitecture #GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
A Year of Colour. Live. 29th September 2026.
I'm joining Chris Young @seewhygarden at @rutlandnursery's The Bothy in Rutland for a morning talking about my book, the planting, and how colour in the garden is less about rules than it is about paying attention.
Chris is a Read morevery good friend and one of the sharpest minds in horticultural publishing. He trained as a landscape architect, spent over 25 years in the industry, was editor of The Garden for the RHS, and is now Consultant Gardening Publisher for DK.
He asks the kind of questions that make you think.
An hour with him is always time well spent.
Doors open 10:20am. In conversation at 10:30, followed by Q&A and a book signing before a 12pm finish.
I'd LOVE to see you there.
Tickets via @rutlandnursery's bio, or book direct here:
https://tickets.rutlandnursery.co.uk/event-tickets/80088?catID=65847
Or comment COLOUR below and I'll send you the link.
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#GardenDesign #AYearOfColour #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
We don’t just design gardens. We design how a building meets its landscape.
We design for the people who will use that space every day, and for the ecology that should thrive there long after the scaffolding comes down.
Biodiversity net gain, sustainable drainage, bold planting,Read more spaces that work as hard for wildlife as they do for the people in them.
We work across public realm, hotel and spa landscape design, heritage sites, corporate grounds, healthcare, and charitable commissions.
Not as a bolt-on. As a fully integrated part of the design team, from concept to completion.
Our portfolio includes the World Food Garden and Wildlife Garden at RHS Wisley, the Great Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace, and the award-winning Cottonmill Spa at Sopwell House.
We support BREEAM assessments, biodiversity net gain requirements, and planning submissions across the UK.
Bold. Vibrant. Biodiverse. Built to last.
If your project needs this kind of thinking, get in touch.
+44 (0) 1730 825650 | info@ann-mariepowell.com
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#landscapearchitecture #PlantsPeoplePlacePurpose #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
Planting that stops you in your tracks.
It’s been a while since we shared a look at the studio’s work, so here’s a start.
This is the planting thinking that runs through everything we do: colour that doesn’t apologise for itself, height, movement, year round interest, Read morehabitat, biodiversity.
Gardens our clients want to spend their time in, with planting buzzing with life.
A look across a few of the projects we’ve designed, private gardens, public spaces, heritage sites among them.
More coming soon.
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#LandscapeArchitecture #GardenDesign #BoldVibrantBiodiverse
