An Interview with the Author, Illustrator, and Gardener

June 29, 2025

3

Plant that makes you swoon:

Foxgloves, honeysuckles, peonies, dahlias, waterlilies, mints, tender fruit, roses, scabious, violas, cosmos, nasturtiums, herbs, geums. Poppies.

Plant that makes you wish to run the opposite manner:

Begonias, Laurel, photinia yucca, phormium, busy Lizzies, bedding geraniums. Conifers.

Favourite go-to plant:

Geums.

Hardest gardening lesson you’ve realized:

That the backyard you like at this time received’t all the time be yours tomorrow.

Unpopular gardening opinion:

chickens arthur parkinson — Above: An Instagram shot of a few of his beloved Buff Cochin chickens.

I hate the concept of the backyard being domesticated into an outside room with amenities to accommodate barbecues and the like. I additionally suppose canines and youngsters typically cripple a backyard!

Gardening or design pattern that should go:

Fences. We’d like as many native hedges our backyard boundaries can accommodate as a result of they’re very important habitat for songbirds and bugs.

Outdated wives’ story gardening trick that truly works:

Prune the roses.

Favourite gardening hack:

A deck chair in the summertime plonked—make your self have time within the backyard. Don’t be a slave to the work. Embrace it and luxuriate in being in it when the climate is nice.

Favourite strategy to deliver the outside in.

arthur parkinson pots — Above: “Certainly one of my favorite tablecloths embroidered pink wisteria by Colefax and Fowler matching completely to the little nasturtium that’s ‘Ladybird Rose’ which is without doubt one of the finest to develop for little pots because it has a stunted behavior in comparison with others. With candy peas.” From Arthur’s Insta account.

I minimize flowers from the backyard each few days and produce pots in, and out, too.

Each backyard wants a…

Chook tub.

Favourite hardscaping materials:

As little as attainable.

Software you’ll be able to’t stay with out:

Florist scissors they’re nice for pruning and reducing.

Go-to gardening outfit:

Sadly nearly all the things I personal.

Favourite nursery, plant store, or seed firm:

Burford Backyard Co.

In your wishlist:

Gooseberry bushes.

Not-to-be-missed public backyard/park/botanical backyard:

Coton Manor, Northamptonshire.

The REAL motive you backyard:

Quick Takes With Arthur Parkinson portrait 7 — Above: {Photograph} courtesy of Create Academy.

Emotional connection to the earth. I suppose additionally it’s good to be God to a packet of seeds. Love the magic of rising and nurturing one thing.

Thanks a lot, Arthur! (You may observe him on Instagram @arthurparkinson_.)

For our full archive of Fast Takes, head right here.

(Visited 1 instances, 1 visits at this time)