Garden Yourself Healthy in 2021
At a time of new beginnings, could I make the case that you include the garden in your resolutions for 2021? Perhaps you could set yourself the challenge of [...]
Grow Some Sunshine – raising money for NHS heroes
These are challenging times for all of us, particularly having to conform to social isolation, but any gardener will tell you that their biggest consolation is being able to nurture [...]
Fritillaria meleagris
Fritillaria meleagris Common name: Snake's head fritillary It's hard to describe the colour and pattern on the petals of these beautiful flowers which grow 'wild' in a [...]
Variegated, or not variegated: that is the question
A walk around any garden centre at this time of year will reveal a number of variegated, evergreen shrubs and perennials that catch the eye. And on a [...]
Camellias: love them or hate them?
I've decided that camellias are a 'marmite' plant. There are plenty of gardeners who love their rose-like blooms which are produced in spring over glossy evergreen foliage: and then those [...]
There’s no drop like a snowdrop
I love this time of year. Dark, cold days, punctuated by bursts of feeble winter sunshine, when the gems and jewels that appear in the garden are all the more [...]
Dreams of a dahlia summer
Beside my chair in the living room, at the moment, are piles of seed and plant catalogues, along with my iPad, ready for me to browse with the dog curled [...]
Off with their heads? Not yet
Many gardeners seem to have an in-built tidiness gene and go out armed with the secateurs to chop back things that they think look messy. This not only leaves you [...]
A taste for flies
Flies aren’t much of a nuisance in the UK at this time of year, but in the summer we seem to get more than our fair share buzzing around here [...]