A garden journal

The Bon Blog

Seasonal notes, practical advice and observations from gardens across Suffolk.

A gently restored cottage border with existing plants tidied and given space

🌿 Garden Principles20 July 20265 min read

Reveal what's already there

Most of the gardens I am called to do not need new plants, or a new design, or a new anything. They need to be reminded of themselves.

Recent notes

Acid-green euphorbia flowers among a mixed border in early summer

🌱 Plant Notes18 July 20265 min read

Euphorbia — the quiet backbone of a Suffolk border

If I had to choose a single plant that holds a Suffolk border together through the awkward weeks between spring and full summer, it would be euphorbia. Not showy. Just quietly there, doing the work.

A cottage border with warm-toned perennials and a mown lawn edge

🌱 Plant Notes16 July 20264 min read

Geum — small, generous and long-flowering

Geum is one of those plants I keep coming back to because it flowers for longer than it has any right to, and asks almost nothing in return.

A calm, well-maintained garden with a wooden bench beside a brick care home building in soft morning light

🤝 Care & Community14 July 20265 min read

Gardening for Suffolk care homes and community organisations

Gardens in care homes, supported living settings and community organisations are shared spaces. They belong to residents, families, staff and visitors. Keeping them well maintained takes more than a mower.

A cottage garden border with repeated groups of lavender and salvia

🌿 Garden Principles13 July 20264 min read

Why I often buy plants in threes (not thirteens)

One of the most common things I notice in garden centres is a trolley full of beautiful plants — but only one of each. It's completely understandable, and there's a gentler way to plant that often feels more at ease.

A pale blue nigella flower with droplets of dew, seen close up

🌱 Plant Notes5 July 20263 min read

Nigella, and the quiet case for self-seeders

Every summer, in gardens across Suffolk, nigella turns up in places nobody planted it. That is really the whole appeal.

Pink cosmos and monarda flowering in a summer border

🌱 Seasonal Notes1 July 20264 min read

July jobs in a Suffolk garden

By early July most Suffolk gardens are running on the edge of dry. The work now is less about pushing plants on, and more about keeping what you have looking well.

Pink hollyhocks against a green picket fence, with bees among the flowers

🐝 Wildlife Watch20 June 20262 min read

Bees in the hollyhocks

There is a stretch of hollyhocks along a fence in one of the gardens I look after that, every June, becomes the busiest street in the village.

A dense border with euphorbia and blue nigella after weeding

🌾 Soil & Compost18 June 20264 min read

Working with clay, without fighting it

A great many gardens around Stowmarket, Debenham and Eye sit on heavy clay. It sets like concrete in July and turns to porridge in February. It is also, quietly, some of the best soil in the country.

Purple honesty and pink dianthus in a freshly tidied bed

🏡 Before & After4 June 20263 min read

Before and after: a forgotten border in Mendlesham

A quiet cottage garden that had slipped out of hand over a couple of wet winters. No dramatic rescue, just steady hours across three visits.

Themes

What you'll find here

The Bon Blog grows slowly. New notes are added whenever there is something worth sharing.

Seasonal NotesReflective, observational writing that follows the turning of the year.
Plant of the FortnightA closer look at one plant worth knowing.
Plant NotesShort field notes on the plants I return to in Suffolk gardens.
Garden PrinciplesThe quiet ideas behind a well-kept garden.
Weather & GardensHow Suffolk weather shapes what we do.
Wildlife WatchSmall moments from the borders and hedges.
Before & AfterGardens quietly brought back to themselves.
Trees & ShrubsThe bones of the garden.
Cottage Garden IdeasPlanting the way Suffolk has always planted.
Soil & CompostWhere every healthy garden begins.
Favourite PlantsThe ones I return to, again and again.
Care & CommunityGardening for shared spaces, care homes and community organisations.