Bloom

Bloom is a seasonal magazine for gardeners, plant admirers, nature lovers and outdoor adventurers. Each issue is packed with practical gardening projects, explorations of the natural world and celebrations of the beauty of all green spaces, whether they’re in the wilderness or on a windowsill. Beautiful and useful, Bloom inspires you to harness the power of nature and to get out there and be a part of it.

Nature is life

Bloom

Peonies

Dahlias

STEP OUTSIDE WITH… SUI SEARLE • Sui Searle is a gardener, writer and printmaker. She has worked in botanic, public, private and community gardens and is the founder of @decolonisethegarden on Instagram, which brings a decolonial lens to horticulture. She is also the editor of the alternative gardening newsletter Radicle on Substack. She sees the garden as a site of ever-changing co-creation with the potential to practise other modes of being, and a place to cultivate deeper relationships with our more-than-human kin.

INSPIRATION FOR LIFE OUTDOORS

RECLAMATION YARD

The bowl story • Select heirloom leaves with history and your salad will come with a story, says Sarah Smith, kitchen gardener and founder of seed shop the Garden Deli

LEGENDS LIVE ON • How to save lettuce seed

Borders without limits • What does a professional horticulturist grow when he gets a garden of his own? We asked Matt Collins, head gardener of the Garden Museum, to share his advice on creating a flower-filled border from scratch, on a shoestring, in just one year

Take five • Guiding principles for the budding flower border

In my garden • Matt Collins’ planting list

By the light of the moon • Could gardening to celestial rhythms yield bumper crops? Erika Pepe, a moon calendar specialist and founder of Lunar Organics, offers a beginner’s guide

SUGAR SPICE AND ALL THAT’S NICE • Grow flowers for their flavour profile – from sweet to sour – and you’ll have a host of new culinary ingredients. Carolyn Dunster, the author of A Floral Feast, shares some of her favourites

Get ready to expand your mind • Plants can help us experience euphoria, sharpened senses, lucid dreaming and even expanded spirituality. Elaine Perry, a neuroscientist and the founder of Dilston Physic Garden, guides us to an enhanced state of consciousness

Perception

Euphoria

Spirituality

Imagination

Pest intentions • When bugs turn up at your veg patch, it can be hard to resist all out warfare. Vicky Chown, the author of new Bloom book Edible Garden, tells us about some common critters and shares simple ways to tackle them without reaching for the chemicals

A TRIO OF TROUBLEMAKERS • Three more issues to identify

Inside out • Confining houseplants indoors limits your options outdoors, argues Michael Perry (aka Mr Plant Geek), who says we should chuck out the rule book when creating summer pots

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION • Indoor/outdoor plant combinations

STORIES FROM A WILD WORLD

Ploughing their own furrow • A new generation of farmers are turning their backs on conventional agriculture and a broken food system – we meet four growers leading the modern evolution of farming

Time will tell • The urban garden has moved at the speed of urbanisation itself, morphing and shifting (and shrinking) over the centuries and revealing the particular concern of each generation of city dwellers. Gardener and historian Ben Dark travels back through the ages

‘Gardening is a dance between dream and reality’ • Writer, cultural critic and gardener Olivia Laing tells us about restoring a historic garden in Suffolk, her horticultural inspirations and the fight for paradise on Earth

LET’S ROCK • Stone has been part of the human story since day...