Warm welcome!

At the turn of the century I bought a house in South East London with a smallish garden. Originally I was vaguely planning to turn it into a cottage garden, all hollyhocks, lupins and roses. Then one day I went into a bookshop and found a new book by an unknown author called Sarah Raven. The book was The Bold and Brilliant Garden and it transformed my ideas - and my garden. I am immensely grateful to the now-famous Sarah for her inspiration and guidance as well as to other great gardeners like the late Christopher Lloyd (famed for tearing up his rose garden in order to create an Exotic Garden) and the great plantsman Bob Brown.  I have also benefitted from two decades of reading the excellent Which Gardening, whose plant trials and New Plants reviews have helped me make many a sound purchase.
Why this blog? Its purpose is chiefly an updating one. The Bold and Brilliant Garden was published in 1999. I am amazed at the new varieties of flower which have come into commerce since then. In fact the majority of plants I grow were unavailable back when I started out! 

There is also the fruits of my trial-and-error. I would like to give other gardeners who like the idea of Boldness and Brilliance the benefit of my mistakes and experience, and perhaps learn from them too. 
 


So what is a Bold and Brilliant Garden? Above all it is about promoting bright flower colours. Oranges (tangerine, vermillion), reds, yellows, bright pinks, cerise, magenta, deep peach, dark salmon. It also means avoiding pale colours along with white. The final ingredient is growing bonkers foliage to match the bonkers colours - lots of relieving green along with yellow-green, yellow, grey, black, and red. Having a small garden I also "grow my garden upwards" to make use of vertical space. Lack of space also means that long flowering seasons are an absolute obsession with me. 

After 23 years I am as keen on my Bold and Brilliant Garden as I was at the start of the century. It is a space I never want to leave - and if you like the concept and go for it with vim and vigour, you won't either.



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