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 [...]
Make fruit part of your family history
When I was a small child, my parents – who weren't blessed with a green finger between them – had a loganberry trained on a fence at the end of [...]
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 [...]
Do you know how to prune?
So many gardeners have questions about pruning: How far do I need to cut? When is the best time to prune? My shrubs are a tangled mess... Can you help? [...]
Not just for Christmas
I’m always shocked to see the skeletal remains of Christmas trees on the streets of towns and cities after Twelfth Night. It seems all the more poignant when you consider the [...]
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 [...]