For this episode of Substack on Film: London, we took the train an hour south to a small town in East Sussex to visit Jo Thompson, an author, garden designer, and the writer behind The Gardening Mind on Substack.
When I imagined an English garden, I thought of perfection: manicured lawns, clipped hedges, and fountains with angelic little sculptures (I later learned that Real Garden Heads know that this style is more characteristic of French gardens). While Jo is perfectly capable of that sort of work, her style is more approachable. She has a disarmingly down-to-earth way about her—she laughed off a dying houseplant in her studio—and a contagious enthusiasm for every rose she plants.
We spent the afternoon in her studio flipping through her books and hanging out with Basil the dog before stepping outside to see her garden. Though it was already September, well after peak season, we were charmed by the magical feeling of her garden and delighted to catch a few blooms peeking out of the greenery.
You can read more of Jo’s writing (and see plenty of roses) on her Substack. We’ll be back next week with another episode of Substack on Film: London.
