Craig Fearn
I run Gardenkept, a UK shop that prints garden art and personal garden prints to order. Each piece is made after somebody buys it.
- Made to order for you.
- Free UK delivery, 4 to 9 working days.
- Arrives damaged or with a print fault? We reprint or refund it at our cost.
I write the guides and the journal here. They sit beside a shop, so they say plainly what Gardenkept makes and what it doesn't.
The rule the guides run on
Gardening advice gets repeated until no one knows where it started. So each guide here follows one rule. Each guide lists the pages its facts come from, and a fact I can't source goes. Planting and pruning dates come from the RHS. Bird advice comes from the RSPB and the BTO. If I can't find the source, the sentence doesn't run.
That means some guides stop sooner than you might expect. A fact I couldn't confirm is left out, not rounded up.
What Gardenkept makes
Three things, all printed to order. A collection of garden artwork, every piece printed to order. A photograph of your own garden, printed as it is. And a portrait made from that photograph in one of the art styles, with a free watermarked preview before anybody pays. Start with your garden photograph if you're not sure which suits.
What I write about
- Planting and pruning, timed to the month you need them
- Choosing a garden photograph and print sizes
- The journal: stories and practical help from the garden
Checking a guide for yourself
Start with the source beside the advice. A growing date from the RHS and a flower meaning quoted from an old book answer different questions. The flower meanings guide names the book and explains why its meanings are not an official language. You can follow the link and read the entry yourself.
The frost dates page works differently. It uses weather-station records and explains the years, measurements and missing readings behind the table. A station average helps with planning; it cannot tell you that your own garden is safe from frost tonight. Read the limits beside a figure as well as the figure itself.
Useful corrections
If something looks wrong, send the page address and the sentence you mean. A link to the original source helps me check it. If a source has moved or no longer says what the guide claims, point that out too. You do not need to write a long explanation.
Questions about choosing a print are welcome as well. Tell me whether you mean an artwork from the collection or a print of your own photograph: the file checks and returns rules differ. The size guide covers formats and frames, and delivery and returns sets out what happens after you order.
Getting hold of me
Corrections are the useful kind of email. If a fact here is out of date, I'd rather hear it from a reader. hello@gardenkept.co.uk reaches me.
Questions before you choose
Who writes the guides on this site?
I do. I write the guides and the journal.
Where do the growing facts come from?
From the body that publishes them: the RHS for planting and pruning, the RSPB and BTO for birds, the Woodland Trust and legislation.gov.uk for foraging. The ASPCA covers pet safety. The flower-meanings guide quotes the Project Gutenberg text of the Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway, and a paper from the RHS Lindley Library. Each source is linked at the foot of the page that uses it, or the fact is cut.