A Year of Garden Experiments
Sand and wildflower gardening, poppy petal emulsion and Nigel Dunnett.
Pictorial Meadow wildflower seed mix sample packet, with added borage and poppies.
Bulb planting November 2025, Southbank Centre
On a cold and bright October day last year Maeve and I tucked 1200 spring bulbs into the soil on top of the Queen Elisabeth Hall at Southbank Centre. It felt like wrapping up Christmas presents to open later. Working outside this way felt deeply restorative and has since become a happy part of everyday life.
On the roof of Queen Elisabeth Hall tucking bulbs into their winter blankets with Maeve Polkinhorn, November 2025.
Learning from Nigel Dunnett’s ‘Grey to Green’ in Sheffield
As part of the Society of Garden & Landscape Designers (SGLD) tour of Nigel Dunnett’s Green to Grey project in Sheffield, Maeve and I (Eleanor) spent a wonderful weekend exploring how imaginative planting has transformed the city’s public spaces. During the symposium, I found myself sketching next to Owen Hayman, who kindly gifted me three packets of wildflower seeds from Pictorial Meadows, their experimental meadow seed company. A visit to their trial fields was equally inspiring, giving me the confidence to gradually replace our lawn with wildflowers and create areas for experimentation and biodiversity in the garden.
A very inspiring Pictorial Meadows tour with Owen Hayman.
Sheffield’s ‘Grey to Green’ and Pictorial Meadows tour.
Wildflower test areas (at home in Dorset)
We sowed each of the three small sample packets of wildflower seeds in different parts of our garden to see how they grew and where they liked to live. I made a circular woven bed for one packet out of hedge cuttings from our Hawthorn and Beech hedge and dug out some old compost that was left by the previous occupants of the house.
In this way our garden has become a more experimental part of our life. The colours, variety and textures are just so beautiful. As a total novice it’s so exciting to discover what is growing and it’s constantly buzzing with bees and insects.
Sand Garden (at home in Dorset)
Researching West Dean’s sand garden and the work of Tom Brown, we were inspired to create a dry sand garden along our front path, a part of the garden which receives full sun all day. Maeve Polkinhorn generously sent a quick sketch (thank you, Maeve!) showing a few ideas of how we could lay out a lavender path; and a tonne of sand later our sand garden was made!
All the plants we’ve added are drought tolerant and mediterranean style (planted into 10cm of sharp sand) which means that after the first year we shouldn’t need to water it. We love the colour of the sand as a background to the plants and it works really well with the golden local ham stone of our Victorian house.
We planted this in May / June and we can’t believe how happy the plants are and how rapidly they’ve grown. Its such a joy to watch! We’ll share progress of this learning over the next year for anyone who is interested.
Photos show from February to June 2026. Our local builders merchants looked perplexed when asking for a tonne bag of sharp sand to make a garden!
Reseda Alba seedlings grown from seed from Black Shed Flowers ready to go in , June 2026.
Planting April / May 2026
Poppy Petal Emulsion (from Pictorial Meadow seeds)
Since October, the plants have inspired me to experiment more generally at home in my garden studio. These photos show anthotype printing; using plant emulsions to create photographic prints.
Exploring the darkroom on our doorstep.
Anthotype is a historical, delicate photographic process and an environmentally friendly way of making prints using nothing other than the photosensitive material of plants found in the garden, the flower market or in the wild. We utilise natures’ own colouring pigments to produce photographs that have virtually zero impact on the environment.This is a very sensitive and gentle technique that uses no chemicals or cameras, just plants and the sunshine. The emulsions are not ususally colour fast (with a few exceptions) and will slowly fade over time. One thing I love about anthotype is the impermanent nature of the images; the fleeting nature of the prints are like the seasons and the plants themselves.
I’m really enjoying experimenting with different flowers and herbs and will share more about these tests soon.
My garden studio with inks and pigments from plants and geology and rosemary and bay toners for cyanotype toning experiments. It’s interesting how the chemicals found within plants can shift the ph balance to create different colours and tones. This is something I am curious to find out more about. I am excited to make some plans to work with Simon Sandy’s - a old photography technician from my time studying at Brighton University who has become very interested in botanical processes within photography.
Thank you to all the friends and gardeners who have inspired us, shared their knowledge, and gifted us plants.
We're especially grateful to Black Shed Flowers for the many fascinating additions to our sand garden. When I told Paul and Helen that I was creating a sand garden, Paul disappeared for a little while before returning, beaming, with a tray full of unusual and interesting plants for us to plant.
We're also thankful to Glenholme Herbs for their wonderful lavender. We've been making tea from the herbs we've grown, and it's been a real joy to watch a thriving ecosystem establish itself and flourish in such a remarkably short space of time..
Oak nesting pod at Southbank Centre in it’s third Summer, poppy seed heads in our garden in June 2026
Nigel Dunnett 1963 - 2026.
We were so saddened to hear about the passing of Nigel Dunnett. He seemed such a true and gentle person with an enormous heart and vision.
I think of him and his work and contribution when I look at the incredibly sensitive variety of plants within such a small seed packet.
His work will inspire us and so many other people for so long.
Our garden has become a place of connection, rest and recovery. Nigel has helped us to understand how this can support us everyday.
