Right, so our gardens and outdoor spaces have comforted us through March, April, May, June, July, August and September of this ghastly year, and now they HAVE to help us through the cold, damp months as well. Stop watching the news for a while and immerse yourself in tasks like compost-turning, planting garlic or taking […]
Joy of joys! I’ve been to a Plant Fair, a proper one at Great Dixter, with real people who’ve grown the plants themselves, not imported them on trolleys from the Netherlands as is often the way at garden centres. This precious breed of nursery owners really are among the unsung heroes of lockdown and it’s time […]
There are so many beautiful grasses to choose from and we can’t grow them all; but we can visit gardens and specialist nurseries all over the UK, talk to the growers, look long and hard at what’s on offer and then decide which is the best for us There are around 150 named cultivars of Miscanthus sinensis so it […]
We’ve reached October 2020, and it has to be true that most of us, if not all, stand amazed and appalled each day at how the human world has changed for the worse in nine short months. Even as we move towards late autumn and winter, let’s turn with pleasure and thankfulness to our plants […]
Now you might think that since you have been slogging night and day in your garden for months and months this year you can now put your feet up. Oh no, no, no! You’ll be thrilled to hear that September is an EXCELLENT time to renovate your garden. Laura can tell you why, later. You […]
‘Nothing flimsy about them’ – so wrote Christopher Lloyd about rudbeckias. Of course, he hit the nail right on the head, and it reminded me that it is this very dense quality that I often find a little overpowering in the genus. So, a couple of years ago I was delighted to be introduced to R triloba with its open habit and well-spaced wiry stems; in this respect it’s rather […]
For most of this year, thinking about horticulture has been a blessed relief from the miserable news headlines, and this September is as crowded with grim stories as ever, so let’s turn with a sense of release and solace to some tasks like pruning shrubs, sowing hardy annual seeds, and planting bulbs amongst other things…………………. […]
Oh boy, if ever we needed our plants and gardens to keep on and on putting a smile on our faces, it is NOW. A long, slow beautiful autumn right into the back end of October at least, please. But what plants will help us rage against the dying of the light? (Don’t worry if […]
When it comes to late summer and autumn flowering shrubs, there are not so very many to choose from, and the pink-flowered indigo is less often seen than it deserves; but this delicate shrub has great charm and I really look forward to its quiet but effective contribution to our garden at this time of the year. I. amblyantha is native to south central China and is noted for its long flowering […]
The year has tipped into September, and the light feels softer, the evenings are chillier….A keen gardener knows that these changes signal a return to action after the less frenetic high summer months, so let’s get busy with the herb garden, harvesting veg and trimming hedges………….. Helping the herbs Many herbs are so easy to […]
You know you’re a proper gardener when you start propagating plants, and generously giving them away to others. My own garden is full of plant gifts from Elaine and Louise, – none yet from Caroline but one lives in hope. Indeed one of the pleasures of a walk around your garden is the memories of […]
When our old Belfast sink finally became too chipped and stained for kitchen use, out it went by the back door, and my ever-resourceful husband had it turned into a vintage garden trough in no time. No sink, trough or container specifically dedicated to growing alpines, sempervivums and other succulents is by any means low maintenance; this is probably because one has to use such a gritty, free-draining potting […]
Here in the parched south, our gardens were greatly revived by the recent welcome rain – just what was needed! We’ve got lots of treats for you this week including a new Veg Update from Laura, and two reviews of products we have been trialling – see the links at the end of this post. […]
‘Bite Away’ – a treatment for insect bites Bite-Away is a little patented battery-powered device designed for the treatment of insect bites. It is a small gadget, and the idea is that you hold the ceramic end of it against the insect bite as soon as possible after you were bitten, and press either the […]
Burgon & Ball Sophie Conran Long-Handled Digging Spade I absolutely must tell you about my new favourite garden tool! It’s a Sophie Conran Long-Handled Digging Spade which has been introduced this year by Burgon & Ball. It has replaced my old and trusted border spades, for whenever I am busy in the borders, planting, unearthing […]
Never has the sisterly horticultural divide been greater than this summer. I berated Caroline last Saturday for using a photo of Elaine wearing a fleece (unthinkable this week – she would keel over with heat exhaustion) and she hissed back that it was (her words) ‘pissing with rain again in Scotland’. So our sibling suggestions […]
If plants were twinned with characters from books, there is little doubt that Datisca cannabina would be paired up with Roald Dahl’s BFG. My Great Plant this Month is truly a gentle giant of a plant. This clump-forming, herbaceous perennial, to 2m or more in height, is almost as wide as it is high; however, this […]
Early August means the highest of high summer! Whatever is on your mind, it can’t halt the corn reaching as high as an elephant’s eye, or the fruit ripening on the branches. Let’s be thankful for that at least, and get on with some tasks like sowing winter salads, make some new sempervivums, and assessing […]
Unfortunately my sisters view windy sites in a garden as a problem rather than an opportunity – if only they had studied proper subjects at school such as geography and biology, (instead of in Elaine’s case, Classics, and in Caroline’s, boys) they would know that in other regions of the world there are plants that […]
Plants grown in containers are really starting to come into their own in the heat of summer, and there is one in particular which I would hate to be without. Belonging to the same family as salvias (lamiaceae), my subject today certainly does bear close resemblance to many of the sages and I am often […]
As we move into high summer, most of the country’s gardens, pots and window-boxes are burgeoning with flowers, fruit and veg, proving that no matter how weird and frightening this year has been so far for us all, our gardens will just keep on giving, with a bit of love and encouragement from us. So let’s […]
We’re talking about which plants look great together this week so obviously I’m going first. Laura is only interested the provenance, the botany, the rarity value and the drama of single specimens. Interesting (she yawned) but the horticultural equivalent of self-indulgent navel-gazing as far as I’m concerned, and I have grave suspicion that Caroline’s idea […]
It all began on a very windy day in February when I noticed that our aged Chimonanthus praecox was being blown sideways under the weight of a winter flowering clematis and a honeysuckle. So, I did a bit of emergency topping there and then and made a note to finish off the job in the spring when the clematis had finished […]
By mid-July, the spring freshness has usually left the garden, but we can start to enjoy the fullness and scents of the true summer flowers like lilies, salvias and verbena, and begin to harvest the fruit and veg we sowed and tended so hopefully early in the year. Let’s get on with a bit of […]
Caroline split up with her boyfriend when she was 20 and petulantly moved from Sussex to the Scottish Highlands. ‘She’ll be back’ we thought but no, over four decades later she’s asking for our advice on what to grow in the glasshouse attached to her new home north of Inverness (our feature pic). Luckily for […]
In our garden, our beautiful pool was designed and built by Rob, my husband, so fair enough, he now has jurisdiction over its planting (although I still do the weeding around it!). I therefore look and admire, and when something really catches my eye, I ask for its name and find out more. This pontederia is a very showy perennial plant from North America: a marginal aquatic that is hardy […]
We’re past the longest day and the nights are drawing in…, but not before we have a glorious summer to follow the lovely weather of spring, we hope! Jobs and tips to get on with this week include drying off the tulip bulbs, utilising some household things in the garden and sowing some poppies, so […]
Has there ever been a time when we have been more grateful for our gardens’ wildlife? It’s been one of the silver linings of lockdown, up there with Joe Wicks and ‘Milk and More’ home deliveries (that would be Wines Direct for Caroline). So let’s say thank you to all our birds, animals and insects […]
There was a time when the only sage I grew in my garden was the culinary herb, Salvia officinalis; but today I ask myself, where would we be without the rest of them? It is a huge genus and they are very varied in colour and habit, many are hardy and very long flowering, others less hardy but all are huge favourites in […]
It’s all going pretty well up till now, as far as the garden goes. A spectacularly hot May, at least here in the south, has brought flowers a-plenty, and Caroline tells me that northern gardens are shaping up nicely too. Welcome rain is now wetting parched soil here, so with less stressed plants, we can […]
Planting up a summer pot is such good fun! There are a few simple rules regarding container, soil/compost, aspect and maintenance, and then the world is your lobster! Naturally, we don’t all agree about what to put in our pots…………… First of all, a few basic rules (What are the chances Caroline is paying attention?) […]
I make no apology for choosing a rose this week, we are in June after all, and this amazing climber is such a winner, I just couldn’t ignore it. Many years ago, we first saw ‘Dortmund’ growing on a wall of ‘The Garden House’ in Devon and as I remember it was the only rose on sale in the nursery at the time. This, in itself, was […]
June here already with the longest day looming! The year is flying on, and there are gardening jobs a’plenty to keep us from dwelling on all the strange difficulties of the past three months. Let’s tackle things like dealing with whitefly, planting out the tender perennials, and removing excess weed from the pond. (If you […]
I’ve loved looking back through the archives of Chelsea past haven’t you? Today we’ve each chosen a garden, a plant and a moment from recent shows that made the biggest impression on us. For E and C this is bound to include new roses and bar stools respectively; personally I like to take a more […]
A form of Scots rose that’s tolerate of wild weather – Rosa pimpinellifolia ‘Dunwich Rose’. A smashing hedge rose.
After some really lovely weather through April and early May, much of the garden is shooting up all over the place, and the jobs are piling up! Let’s get on with a bit of border-titivating for the main event, harvesting rhubarb, and choosing some plants for our insect-friends…………… Before we get stuck in, welcome to […]