My slippery descent into gardening began by taking ‘Prickly Pear’ cuttings, from Kew Gardens, while I was still at prep school. After a horticulture degree, with placements in historic gardens, and two decades making gardening telly, I’ve come full circle and returned to being a West Dorset sole gardener.
With April, so far, having been peculiarly dry and bright, I am loathed to second guess how May will behave. Apparently, we’ve just had the driest winter for many years so, if this month proves hotter and drier than normal, Read more »
At the point of writing, I have yet to complete the planting of my own bare-root trees. For some reason, I succumbed to the worst cold I’ve had in years and, foolishly, instead of taking the necessary time off, to Read more »
The weekend on which I happen to be writing this, I’ve also been celebrating my Mother’s 90th Birthday. Being a rather special milestone I wanted to buy her the sort of plant which you wouldn’t find in the average garden Read more »
There’s been a bit of a cold snap recently which doesn’t suit my ‘luxury’ hound (being half Italian Greyhound he’s prone to shivering) but is pretty good for getting on with things in the garden and properly cold weather is Read more »
Hah—Bumhug! Good to know all that Xmas excess is over for another year and yet we still have some of the coldest weeks of the winter to endure. Couldn’t have planned it better myself. Fireside gardening is the order of Read more »
I think we’ve had a pretty ‘standard’ sort of year, for the UK, weatherwise if not politically. Every year will have periods that, in isolation, seem unusual but these events balance out over time. This autumn was pleasingly dry and Read more »
Since getting a dog who turned out to be completely gun-shy, petrified by any sort of explosion, November is the month heralded by a period of great wailing and gnashing of teeth—his and mine! I’m sure, when I was a Read more »
With luck October can yield a good many days upon which gardening is positively joyful. Not so cold that you have to be cocooned in many layers of restrictive clothing and yet not so hot that any degree of physical Read more »
For a little while last month I was forced to adopt my ‘emergency hot weather’ gardening mode. This involves early starts, with late finishes, in order to carry out watering tasks before the sun is too fierce and also so Read more »
There may be a bit of a lull this month as early summer flowers come to an end and late season contributors haven’t quite built up a head of steam. Regular dead-heading extracts the maximum performance from plants which produce Read more »