Summer Gardens

It's the height of summer and therefore the time to enjoy your garden the most.  I have a typical country cottage garden, high maintenance, lots of roses and climbers that require constant pruning and training.  I do love it though and I think the gardening bug caught me as soon as I moved in to Beech House, it is a truly relaxing past time. 

However, the busier I become (and a baby daughter on the way) I'm focusing on down scaling everything in my life and making things as easy as possible - for the time being anyway!

With this in mind, I have fallen in love with simple and stylish garden design.  I'm thinking lots of simple topiary that looks super chic and tasteful, some potted, some not... 

 

Top tips to achieve this look:

• Keep to a clean and classic style, with stylish and simple furniture 
• Up-lighting is an absolute must
• Choose a simple colour scheme to avoid that 'fussy' look, think simply green and white
• Use an outdoor fire for a focal point.  Chimneys or firepits look equally as chic at a fraction of the price
• Use lots of green!

 

 

 Lighting is so important and I just love candlelgiht on a summers evening.  Our fabulous lanterns look so chic.  They are £35 each - buy here. 

Arrange In Style

The simple things in life can really make a difference to your mood and surroundings.  I'm here to talk about flowers!  Flowers make me happy, simple as that.  I love nothing more than receiving, or buying, a bunch of fresh blooms, they are always such a thoughtful gesture (hint to boyfriend), and are always welcome in my home.  

Now an extravagant, colourful display always look beautiful, but we are not channelling wedding day floristry here at Butterfly Lane, therefore my current obsession is a simple display of the same flower.  I just love, love, love Hydrangeas, Peonies at a close second and I'm absolutely loving Chrysanthemum's at the moment.  I recently used cream ones in a photo shoot and they worked so well, simple, understated and chic, just what was required.  

Image from Butterfly Lane  

I also used Papillion Lavender when styling the shoot.  The strong purple really gave the simple white vase a pop, and was a different take on using normal cut blooms.  I think a vase filled with a potted Papillion Lavender would look fabulous either end of a dining room table.

Pretty Papillion Lavender.  Image by Butterfly Lane

I truly believe that simple arrangements look so elegant and chic, so no need to get too extravagant, unless it's your passion of course.  But, with more and more of us being time poor but still want a pretty posy in our homes, below are some simple ideas that I will definitely be recreating at home.  

The use of zesty fruits within an arrangement is a look that I am completely in love with at the moment, especially for a kitchen.  Take inspiration from the below images.  

Slice limes to jazz up a plain glass vase

Love Limes

Use whole lemons and limes for a colourful alternative.

Everyone has a trusty glass vase tucked away in a cupboard, but why not experiment with different forms of 'vases'.  Watering cans and jugs are a classic choice for a country side, come French inspired look.  Why not give it a go?

This cream tin bucket looks fabulous full of fresh cream beauties.  What a centre piece!

A dream of mine is to have a dedicated section in my garden, that is free to pick for flowers at any time to have in my house.  The plan is that it will save money at the florist and will also give me no excuse whatsoever to have fresh and pretty flower arrangements in my home.  With this in mind, I love the image below, full of wild, unkempt flowers.  Simple and just lovely.

Remember to let us know if you have any top flower arranging tips, always great to hear from you.  

  

Chelsea Flower Show 2012

This week the fabulously floral Chelsea Flower Show is in town and it is a must for all you garden lovers.  Or if like me, you don’t particularly have a green thumb, you are sure to appreciate the stunning floral displays on offer.  You might just stumble across a new flower to include in your arrangements at home.   Nothing makes a home more welcoming and cheerful than a flower display in my opinion. 

I don’t think you need to be of a ‘certain age’ to enjoy the event, as The Telegraph harshly reported this week.  Here at Butterfly Lane we think that everyone can appreciate the beauty that is showcased at this unique show.  I visited the event a couple of years ago and loved the array of styles, stunning outdoor furniture and initiative lighting concepts on display.  It is inspiring to say the least.  I am off later in the week for my second Chelsea Flower Show adventure, as a guest of one of the Butterfly Lane suppliers. What a treat! 

Cleve West's Garden, Chelsea Flower Show 2012

I do not have the gardening gene (well, it hasn’t sprouted yet), but I completely love and appreciate a pretty, stunning and most of all, neat garden and it is something that I’m sure I’ll learn more about along the way.    

As summer days are here at last (for the moment anyway) I have abandoned the interior of my house renovation and am completely dedicated to create a floral haven!  However, a haven it is not!  The patio has been dug up and is currently being re-laid.  Concrete, brick dust and lots and lots of noise, is not what I envisaged for one of the hottest weekends of the year!  Where is my sanctuary of calm to accompany a chilled glass of Chardonnay?  Hopefully soon it'll be ready and will be transformed in to a CFS worthy garden...erm, here's wishing!

Here are, in my opinion are the fairest gardens of them all.  Courtesy of The Chelsea Flower Show and many talented and green-fingered folk. 

In ode to my favourite of favourite beverages, I just love the simplicity of the Laurent-Perrier garden.  Full of dusky pink flowers to complement the sponsor's champagne.  It is gold award winning too!

The Mediterranean hits Chelsea with the gold award winning L'Occitane Immortelle, Corsican rocky inspired garden.  Give me some olives, a bit of bread and leave me in this garden please, just divine!  

What’s been your favourite garden on show?  It would be lovely to hear from you.  

A New Gardening World

The sun is shining and the birds are singing and rather uncharacteristically I’m thinking about…gardening!  Albeit, my house still needs a lot of work on the inside, but equally it needs transforming on the outside too and as the weather turns in to hazy sunny days it makes me want to create a charming, relaxing space to kick back with a magazine or two, along with a chilled glass of pinot, whilst listening to the birds chirp away.  Obviously, if the boyfriend is reading this, only after spending a full day painting, sanding and demolishing of course.  A girl needs a sanctuary of calm away from the noise of drills and hammers!  So my new project for the Easter break is to renovate the garden. 

I would also love do some summertime entertaining, so I will be able to usher my friends and family through the chaos that is Beech House and guide them to a relaxing, tranquil garden for me to entertain them in.  Well this is the plan, but I am under no illusions here, I am no Monty Don!  I have gathered lots of images from magazines and from the internet that will hopefully guide me on my way.  However, as I don’t know the difference between a weed and a plant about to burst in to life, I have enlisted my secret weapon, my mother, a veteran at all things green and floral.  Here are a few images that I have found to inspire my garden redesign…

Images:  Pinterest


I might sound harsh here, but I hate a madly colourful garden, to be frank I find the mixture of bright colours somewhat gaudy and oppressive, so I will be focusing on a simple and soft colour palette for the flowers; whites, lilacs, soft pinks and pale yellows and the obligatory green of course.  Hydrangeas are my utmost favourite of all flowers, whether they be in vases in my home, or pots in my garden, they are a must for my redesign.  We are very lucky to have a huge variety of climbing roses at our house (my fabulously floral gardening gloves came in very handy whilst untangling them!).  Roses of all colours dominate the cobbled wall on my driveway and even form an arch around my front door!  Idyllic to say the least.  Roll on the summer so they will all be in full bloom, the scent is just divine.  



Due to my cookery obsession I think a herb garden is a must, and whilst pottering around the garden I have realised that we are already pretty well stocked…parsley, thyme, rosemary, bay, the options are endless!  So they just need rearranging and tagging.  I often get confused as to what herb is which, so if you are like me I have found these cute copper signs so pop in to the soil next to each herb so everything is easily identified!  Very helpful indeed. 

My outdoor space is a small, walled country garden.  Due to its limited size we will have to make the most of the space that we have and use clever tricks to play with the eye to make it appear larger than it actually is.  I am currently designing the lighting concept that will hopefully elongate the garden further by shining soft lights up against the cobbled wall.  I’m also going to use a lot of pots to fill with flowers to put on the courtyard itself, and here are my top picks of garden planters and pots this spring.

Images:  John Lewis and The Worm That Turned


To help me along my new gardening path in style, I have fallen in love with a few gardening accessoires.  I am a huge fan of Sophie Conran, I have her Portmeirion tableware range and I was thrilled to hear that she has teamed up with master gardeners Burgon and Ball to create a beautiful range of gardening tools that are almost too stylish to get dirty!  I also love the V&A range of garden accessories, they are super chic and stylish.  Finally the Cath Kidston gardening gloves are so lovely and come in a variety of prints and patterns, and will protect your hands from nasty thorny roses.  A real must have!  
Image:  Sophie Conran by Burgon and Ball 

Images:  V&A Gardening Tools

Image:  Cath Kidson Gardening Gloves

After trawling the shops, garden centres and online for the perfect patio furniture, I have found ‘the one’ at last.  I really think that good quality patio furniture is a great investment, and if looked after properly (put away/covered over in the winter months) it will last a life time!  We have settled on this circular limestone beauty by Neptune, with the Lloyd Loom chairs to match. 

Image:  Neptune Garden Furniture, John Lewis


Here at Butterfly Lane we have discovered the most elegant al fresco tableware ever!  These beauties look like your most prized glass collection but in fact they are made out of very sturdy, sparkly plastic.  So you can rest with ease as you have a dinner party al fresco style, this range will not smash!  The whole collection from salad bowl and servers, to plates and cutlery will be available to buy at Butterfly Lane soon.  I’ve just placed an order for myself too!

Happy gardening everyone…X