Ellie Tennant

Ellie is a passionate gardener and grower who has worked in media for over 20 years as a writer, editor, stylist and author. She specialises in simple living, country life, gardening, antiques and heritage and regularly writes for Homes & Antiques magazine and BBC Countryfile.

As a busy mum-of-three, she has accepted that her garden will never be immaculate or weed-free so tries to embrace a ‘perfectly-imperfect’ look as well as the joyful chaos that children bring to an outdoor space!

Ellie loves to grow cottage-garden cut flowers for her home and has a soft spot for heritage sweet-peas, delicate dahlias and old-fashioned scented roses. She grows swathes of cosmos (Apricotta and Rubenza), tagetes (Burning Embers) and Knautia Macedonica each year as well as low-maintenance vegetables such as courgettes (Romanesco) and climbing French beans (Cosse Violette.) She also keeps chickens and manages a community vegetable patch project.

When she’s not growing or writing, Ellie loves walking, running, outdoor swimming and scouring thrift shops and markets for vintage treasures. She collects vintage nature and gardening books, uses antique gardening tools and prioritises ‘style over substance’ wherever possible, opting for rustic twine over plastic cable ties and old terracotta flower pots over more practical modern containers. She has a BA in English Literature.