Virtually all of us know someone who has been affected by breast cancer, so this week we are going pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Day on Friday 19 October and suggesting some pink additions to your garden that you could purchase now, along with a donation to Cancer Research. And actually it is […]
For me it is the ultimate cottage garden plant – the thing is, that at any time from late spring until the end of October, I could have chosen the lovely Diascia personata for this slot. Admittedly it can get overlooked in the summer as there is so much competition, but this week it looks […]
Oh dear! Summer’s definitely over now and we must bravely face the oncoming winter weather. The urgency has seeped out of the garden tasks, but there are still some jobs that can be done now, while we plan how to make our gardens EVEN better next year!… LOVE ME TENDER Those tender perennials that have […]
When I proposed that we write about different rose hips for this week’s blog Caroline’s response was ‘Oh, is there more than one sort then? Honestly I ask you, how can someone who can spot a ‘Happy Hour’ sign half a mile away be so unobservant about the natural world? Rose hips are one of […]
Plectranthus are members of the Lamiaceae or mint family, and they’re my latest craze. All species are tender and are really valuable subjects for container growing, not only for the highly ornamental value of their foliage, but also because many are happiest grown in part shade and some in almost full shade. Even P. argentatus, with […]
If you like your garden visiting to be a little magical, a little bit mysterious, to be something you want to go back to, to see if it was really real, go to Lindisfarne on Holy Island. Designed by the legendary Gertrude Jekyll over a century ago, it is no more than 30 x 50 […]
September! Often the loveliest month of them all, when all the angst of wet July and August BBQs etc. is behind us, and we can enjoy the soft early autumn days calmly and gratefully. Let’s get on with a few tasks including dividing perennials, creating green manures, and feeding container bedding plants……………. STUDYING DIVISION AND […]
I am still smarting from a passing comment a stranger who thought Caroline and I looked similar, ‘were we sisters, or perhaps mother and daughter?’ The cheek of it! It must have been Caroline’s pink leggings and silver trainers compared to my more tasteful attire that prompted this observation (think Joan Collins versus Judi Dench) […]
Like an eccentric but glamorous great aunt, my plant this week is a wonderful example of how to age gracefully! Going grey yes, but losing any other attributes, no! A bit like going to a big family party, I walk into the garden and there she is, you can’t miss her – tall, willowy and […]
What an interesting summer of gardening it’s been! I feel the effect of this year’s strange weather – one of the hottest on record – might be seen for several years to come on insect and bird populations as well as our garden-plants. Round here, the August rain has gone a long way to making […]
Still slightly reeling from a trip north of the border to Caroline and her fun-loving Highland friends – just how many parties can you fit into three days? and why do they hold a Harley-Davidson reunion rally in the Cairngorms over August Bank Holiday? (it’s called ‘Thunder in the Glens’!). I definitely needed a restorative perambulation round […]
Previously Sedum ‘Red Cauli’ (just to confuse us further, not all sedums are re-named Hylotelephium, just some of them!), my star plant this week is the amazing stone crop ‘Red Cauli’. Seen above with Diascia personata: it’s one of those plants that just sings at this time of the year. Interestingly neither of these two thrives […]
I do hope this holiday season is going spiffingly well for you. There is a more easeful air about the garden in August. In Scotland, the children are already back at school and in our gardens almost everything that was going to happen, has now happened, apart from the late flowerers and the harvesting of […]
Apparently insect pollinators are responsible for one in three of every mouthfuls of food we eat. I expect you’ve all seen the apocalyptic scenario of empty shelves in the fruit and veg section if global bee numbers continue to tumble (don’t panic Caroline, grapevines are principally wind-pollinated so the wine aisles will be largely unaffected). […]
Like a constant friend who goes way back, so does my plant this week. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember, always there in a pot outside the front door, giving me pleasure each time I pass, and it’s also a terrific foil to other plants. Evergreen and seemingly never having an […]
You know that Alnwick Castle featured as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films, right? (gulp, me neither) but in fact the most amazing thing about Alnwick is how absolutely wizard its gardens are. I know, I know, the heart of a keen gardener might sink a little at the prospect of a garden attached to such […]
So how’s it all going for you?! In this year of peculiar weather, many of us will have been in unknown territory – how have our plants fared through a bitter late winter, a sopping spring, and now a roasting summer? Strange botanical goings-on, worthy of The X-Files (cue the spooky music) but regardless, a gardener’s […]
This summer’s weather has proved that gardening isn’t a great hobby for control freaks. You really just have to go with the flow and sometimes this delivers, as Louise’s plant of the moment demonstrates, and sometimes it doesn’t. But put a plant in a pot and suddenly you have much greater power over its destiny. […]
This is the perfect summer for Eryngium planum, and the difference between last year’s performance and this, is marked. Last year we had much more rain and not a lot of sun and my sea hollies produced too much lush growth, the stems flopped, and the effect was unremarkable. By contrast, this summer, the open, upright habit […]
The summer rolls on, and what a scorcher we’ve had so far! Water-preservation has been the order of the day round here and the drought-tolerant plants have had a field day while much else has struggled. To take your mind off miserable mimulus and such like, here are a few tasks to be getting on with: […]
As in ‘Life’, amongst garden plants there are winners and there are losers. And then there are those who diligently graft away in the background until circumstances collude to give them that moment to shine – their Gareth Southgate moment, their Diving Rescue Team moment. So it has been this summer in my garden. There […]
There’s no doubt that many herbaceous perennials suffer during hot dry spell, and although I try to keep watering anything that I have planted this year, those longer established plants just have to survive on their own reserves. However, in the shrub category, there are one or two which seem positively to thrive, to glow […]
It’s high summer and time to sit back in a shady nook and admire all your fabulous gardening efforts so far this year. Certainly much of the urgency has gone out of the tasks but for those who don’t like to sit around for long, here are a few ideas to get you up out […]
What has intrigued me most about the World Cup (yes, completely hooked now) is how each team has a personality that reflects their nationality. Wildly talented and colourful South Americans, not too fussy about etiquette on the field, small but fiercely determined Japanese, ice cool Swedes (worrying this…..especially if it goes to a penalty shoot […]
Watering can be an industry in itself at this time of the year. During my increasingly frenetic morning and evening activity with the watering can, I throw my Aeonium arboreum grateful and admiring glances in equal measure as I rush past, making a mental note to water it in a few days time! With their bold, architectural […]
Here we are, deep into another glorious British summer, and our gardens hold the real promise of bright days and long evenings among the flowers, produce and greenery. This season is not as frantic as spring when it comes to gardening jobs, but there are still bits and pieces to be getting on with: […]
What is a garden exactly? Can you have a ‘garden’ without a human element? You perhaps know that the etymology of the word is ‘enclosure’ (Middle English from Anglo-French and Old High German), but an enclosure of what? One thing for sure is that it is a heck of a lot more than just plants. […]
There is a faint lull in our garden in the middle of June, many summer flowering plants are poised for the next act, but right now Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’ is the show-stopper. It has been flowering for several weeks already and will continue to do so for many more to come … and it is […]
What a wonderful time of year this is! The longest day is around the corner and summer is beckoning us on. It’s no hardship to be out in the garden pottering and here are some of the jobs you could be doing: YOU AND EUPHORBIASEuphorbias have been delighting us through the spring with their zingy […]
June is prime time for brilliant gardeners and barmily generous householders to throw open the gates to their gorgeous borders; home-made water features and adorable cats. It’s garden visiting season! Never mind the perfect show gardens of Chelsea, this is when you can find out how your neighbours tackle ground elder, and what return they […]
Laura knows a good rose when she sees one! A few years ago she spotted a neglected specimen which was just about surviving near an aircraft hangar at Shoreham airport. It was autumn, the perfect time to take rose cuttings, and they thrived. She gave one to me and we all called it Rosa ‘Shoreham […]
It’s roses, roses all the way, now that June is here! You can stay in the garden till late on warm evenings, admiring your efforts with a pleasant glass of something. But do not think your work is done, Dear Reader, oh dear me, no. There are all sorts of tasks you could be getting […]
Chelsea meant boots when we were teenagers – fast-forward 50 years or so and now it means a fantastic day out for all three of us at the Greatest Flower Show in the World! This year it was definitely all about the lupins but Laura wasn’t impressed: “The trouble with lupins is they put so much […]
If I wake in the night and can’t get back to sleep, I take a mental tour of the garden; and as it’s May I start by counting clematis. I get as far as C ‘Black Tea’ … beyond shadow of a doubt, it’s this week’s star plant and can only be described as ‘sumptuous’. […]
What a fantastic weekend and our fabulous May-time gardens are keeping that feelgood vibe in top gear. Here are a few things to attend to when you’ve got a minute…. TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS Summer clematis are putting on a mass of growth just now, and you need to be vigilant about tying them in. […]
What fun hardy annuals are! Lots and lots of easy, pretty things from seeds scattered over a bit of soil – even a most frightful horticultural snob like Laura can’t get sniffy about that, surely? Now I am well aware that the clever-clogs among you will be saying “Why are the Growbags talking about hardy annuals […]