Lesson one: Always have a good place to sit and enjoy the garden.

When Sarah & I started our blog over five years ago (last month; we missed our blog’s birthday!), we said we wanted to write about real gardens by real people. None of that garden porn stuff for us. Ha!

Well, we’ve learned. And one thing experience has made clear is that you can learn from any garden, even castle gardens, and put it into practice in your own, no matter how small yours is. Here are some of the things we gleaned from a garden we visited in 2008 – an Elizabethan manor with Victorian gardens on extensive grounds at St Fagans Castle in Wales. (The same site that inspired us with their DIY bee hotel.)

Lesson two: Lead the eye. Lesson three: Frame the view.

Lesson four: Be simple, be bold.

Lesson five: If you can’t go out, go up.

Lesson six: Texture is as important as colour.

Lesson seven: Repetition doesn’t have to be exact.

Lesson eight: Stop and smell the flowers. Rosa mundi will reward you.

Lesson nine: Don’t mind the children. They’ll get the garden bug. Eventually.