Last updated: June 29, 2026 by Thompson & Morgan Horticulture Team
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
As a little girl, @chloeplumstead loved pottering around in the garden with her nan and watching her mother transform a humble council estate into a vibrant place full of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Now in her 30s, she co-owns a women’s gardening brand and tends to her own garden and allotment, full of color and abundance. Read how she turned her childhood love of gardening into a life full of flowers, experimentation, and fun chaos.
What made you start gardening?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
It’s hard to say when I fell in love with gardening because I inherited the gene from my mother’s line. From an early age, I would walk around the garden with my Nan, watering the plants with a small watering can while she fetched water, dug, or stalled. And when my mother, my brother, and I moved into our new house, my mother completely transformed the council garden from a grassy rectangle to a bustling assortment of flowers, fruit, and vegetables, and even put fish in the pond she dug herself. I have always been surrounded by women who are doing amazing things using nature.
I started experimenting with myself in my mid-twenties. At the time, I was living in a rental with a small concrete garden, and I started thinking about what I could do with the space, growing potatoes and tomatoes in pots, and planting my first bulbs. Now in her 30s, she currently co-owns a gardening brand for women. I have a small community garden of my own that I inherited last year. I still call myself a novice because I feel like I’m always learning, but growing and gardening has really become central to my life.
What is your favorite gardening style?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
Not a style of gardening per se, but I must confess that I’m not really into large mansion gardens. Always give them a regular home garden that has been cared for and maintained by the same person for years, simply because they like it. I feel like everyday gardeners go under the radar in favor of big budget gardens, but it’s in our spaces on nights and weekends that the magic really happens.
So I like a little bit of chaos, a little bit of disorder, nothing really planned out. If I had to describe my style, it would be modern cottage. I love bright, hot pinks and richness – plants that crowd in and out of borders.
What inspires you in the garden?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
I am inspired by the diversity of things that can grow. It’s a smorgasbord, a veritable chocolate box of options, and each year I feel a renewed excitement to try something new.
It’s impossible to be bored in the garden! There’s always something to do, and there are many ways to do it. I love being able to say to myself, “Okay, I’m going to grow pumpkins this year,” and spend three days digging deep into all the different varieties, their pros and cons, risks and rewards. The same can be said about dahlias. I try new varieties every year and keep the ones I try, test, and love while building a library of favorites.
What are you most proud of?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
The thing I’m most proud of is the big fat goat. It was grown from a cutting taken from my Nan’s garden many years ago and is now nearly 6 feet tall. It’s the first thing I see when I look out the back door into the garden, and it always reminds me of Nan.
What are your future plans?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
This year I experimented with edible and ornamental plants to grow food along with flowers, but next year I’ll be back to growing flowers primarily in the garden to get my share of food. I realized that I missed seeing the sea of dahlias, but thanks to this plot I have enough space to grow food anyway.
I just dug up a sunny border to start a new planting. I laid out a small lawn in the spring and quickly started cultivating it, but the placement and spacing of the plants was a mess, so I added plenty of homemade compost and went back to the drawing board, amending the soil.
Other than that, I would like to increase the number of foods I want to eat. I’m a bit of a magpie. I tend to gravitate towards things that are new and interesting and end up only harvesting a small amount or eating a lot of something I don’t really like (Swiss chard being a prime example!).
What are some gardening tips for beginners?
Image courtesy of Chloe Plumstead
My top tip? Listen, watch, read, yes. But go out and make your own mistakes. That’s the only way you really learn and you should get extreme up! Gardening and cultivation requires putting perfection aside and being patient. And remember that you are responsible for these external spaces. We are just administrators. The outdoors is never ours. So if you’re moving into a new home and don’t plan to live there long, don’t concrete the entire space or shove a potted tree in the corner. Remember that there are gardeners after you and there will be gardeners after them. Respect your outdoor space and it will reward you endlessly.
Grow like Chloe
Image: Thompson & Morgan’s Dahlia “Café Au Lait”
If you’d like to grow the plants and flowers that Chloe features on her Instagram page, here are some of her favorites.
Follow Chloe at @chloeplumstead to see how she continues to grow, inspire and make the most of every inch of her garden. For even more inspiration, our complete series of featured gardeners includes a wealth of highly knowledgeable growers worth following.
Thompson & Morgan’s horticulture team produces a wealth of content about gardening and food production. Since the first seed catalog was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest mail order seed and plant companies. Through publishing catalogs and operating an award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the highest quality products money can buy.
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