Over 57 years, gardener and writer Adrian Bloom has been planting, developing and editing his garden, Foggy Bottom, and he now shares the results in his new book
The Bloom name has always been associated with innovative gardening. At Bressingham in Norfolk, Alan Bloom pioneered the use of perennials in island beds, and his son Adrian soon became an influential tastemaker, too. The conifer and heather beds Adrian planted at Foggy Bottom, his garden next door, were a huge influence on gardeners in the 1970s, but Adrian isn’t one to rest on his laurels.
Since digging out Foggy Bottom’s first turves in 1966, he has striven to constantly innovate and evolve his garden, incorporating the newest plants and embracing current trends. Now, 57 years on, he has produced a remarkable book that documents the garden’s creation in astonishing detail.
Foggy Bottom has long opened to visitors but, as Adrian explains, visitors can only experience the garden on the day they visit, and enjoy it at that particular point in time. With Foggy Bottom: A Garden to Share, Adrian aims to show what it’s like all year round, as well as how it has developed over the years. “I also want people to take a closer look at plants and the nature around them,” he says.
There aren’t so many heathers now, but Adrian’s passion – his collection of conifers – still informs Foggy Bottom’s character. “In the early days we moved everything around, but nowadays it’s more a question of cutting things down. We have 60ft conifers that are past their best or have got too close to one another. Nobody likes parting with things, but it is necessary. In a way, people should look at their gardens in the same way they look at redecorating their house.” One of the book’s highlights is the way it tracks the gradual evolution of parts o
