About Us

I love the city. It’s hard to argue with Samuel Johnson, when he said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”.

But, every so often, I get the urge to escape the headlong scramble to do more, see more, squeeze a bit more out of the day and to spend some time somewhere calmer, more serene.

Which is where my garden comes in. It’s only a roof terrace but it has pretty much everything you could want from a garden – somewhere shady to sit and while away hot summer afternoons, a barbie to feed the hungry friends and most importantly, lots and lots of plants.

There’s something about gardening that gets under your skin – whether it’s buying yet another plant that you know, strictly speaking, you don’t have room for; getting out the hosepipe in your pyjamas because you’ve forgotten to do the watering; or breaking out in a cold sweat at an infestation of unidentified insects. Gardening can be challenging but it is also immensely satisfying and (this is going to sound nerdy) exciting. Just ask my friend Alice who has been known to wake up her husband at ungodly hours of the morning to report on the progress of her seedlings.

And gardens are not just good for the soul, they are also good for the city too. They help to lower the temperature, they provide vital food and shelter for wildlife (and maybe for us too!), they absorb potential flood water and increase oxygen levels.

So for all of these reasons, I wanted to launch The City Planter to share ideas and information about city gardening.

So whether you’ve got a garden, a roof terrace, a balcony or even just some room indoors to grow plants, hopefully you’ll find all the gardening ideas and advice you need to create a beautiful and truly satisfying green space in the city.

I’d love to know what you think.

Rhiannon James

Editor