We are delighted to be welcoming Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to Thyme in November, to host a panel discussion exploring the importance of soil health and its vital role in our ecosystem, while discussing what we need to do in order to secure its future. Hugh will be joined by The Land Gardeners, chef Lulu Cox and artist Nancy Cadogan to hear about their acclaimed new book, Soil to Table, exploring the link between the health of our soils and what we eat.

Here, we sit down with Hugh to hear about his new book, River Cottage Good Comforts, and learn a little more about his thoughts on current food issues and the importance of education in guiding people to healthier eating.

For two decades, since the publication of her first book, ‘The Cutting Garden’, Sarah has led the way in introducing a new kind of productive gardening. Her aim, to create intense colour and beauty combined with a practical and easy to achieve approach. Her love of gardening extends to all areas, from growing cut flowers and delicious vegetables from seed, to designing gardens packed full of incredible colour and scent every season.

The month of July brings with it colour, sunshine and gloriously long, golden days. We are also feeling the heat and with temperatures soaring making work in the garden challenging, early morning starts are the order of the day. There is something very special about the first few hours of the day.

Orchids are one of the largest families of flowering plants and are the national flower of many exotic places, from Costa Rica to Guatemala, Singapore to Assam. Their glamorous blooms are brightly coloured and very long living, with bilateral symmetry and a highly modified petal called the labellum or ‘lip.’ The many different varieties are instantly recognisable as an orchid.

As high summer approaches and the days are warm and long, we can feel midsummer on the horizon. The summer solstice is on the 21st of June, the day when the northern hemisphere is bathed in more sunlight than any other day of the year with the sun highest in the sky. It is the first day of astronomical summer and one for celebration.

My dad didn't cut the lawn - or at least not often - he let it grow until it was knee-high and the neighbours muttered. Admittedly, my dad isn't much of a gardener and the lack of lawn-mowing was mostly because he never quite got around to it.

Here at Thyme, there is a flurry of action. The number of red kites seem to have doubled and a blackbird has made a nest in one of our potted Christmas trees, robustly exclaiming if anyone walks too near.

utside, it’s still the colour of winter - grey and brown (apart from the blooming daffodils) - but inside, the soil is a healthier, richer colour, striped with row after neat row of leaves in a myriad of green.