Our Great British gardens...
with help from Frances Tophill
Who doesn’t love an endless Summer day spent in a Great British Pub garden? Basking in the sunshine and warm welcomes, they truly are the original great British escape where the best of memories are made.
To celebrate our wonderful open spaces, close to nature and at the heart of our community, Chef & Brewer are proud to partner with the wonderful Frances Tophill. A regular on our TV screens, published author and award winning garden designer, Frances shares our passion for the outdoors and is bringing her experience to help us make the most of our outdoor spaces for our guests, teams and nature. Frances has focused on three key themes...
Our garden principles
Frances worked with our team to craft the ultimate ‘principles’, to provide guidance on how to design and plant a beautiful pub garden, choosing plants that are easy to maintain, provide impact all year round, and provide a haven for you, your family and nature.
Seasonal ingredients
At Chef & Brewer our menus are characterised by the changing seasons, our chefs select the ripest, freshest fruits and vegetables to bring seasonal authenticity to the table. Frances educates us on the provenance of British produce and the importance of sourcing sustainably.
“One of my favourites is asparagus – when it’s fresh it tastes so much better and of course it’s way more sustainable to buy it when it is in season”
Nurturing biodiversity
We're so lucky to have an abundance of flora and fauna on our doorsteps, so understand the responsibility we have to nurture that nature, and support a healthy ecosystem. We do this through the wild flowers we plant and by supporting the pollinators who are key to the production of our food.
“Wildflower meadows are living, breathing spaces. Having all that variety of plants will provide for all the different creatures that visit it”
Our great gardens pledge
For Chef & Brewer, the partnership is an opportunity to make our pub gardens even better, more seasonal and diverse across our 150 countryside pubs. Some of the commitments we’re making to improving our gardens are:
On her travels around our gardens, Frances provides so many great gardening tips. So whether you’ve got ‘green fingers’ or are picking up a trowel for the first time, be sure to keep an eye out for our gardening activities.