Susanna Grant’s mission seems to be to make gardening easy for people; particularly people who live in the city, where space is at a premium and buildings huddle together to crowd out the light. From behind an unassuming garden gate in Hackney, her courtyard store Linda glows, filled with the kind of lush, green growth that thrives in these conditions. We talk of shade and weeds, community gardens and cake, perennial window boxes and sending worms through the post.
Read moreDay 227: ban urban pesticides
A petition has been doing the rounds; created by Professor Dave Goulson, it aims to put an end to the indiscriminate spraying of chemical pesticides in urban areas…
Read moreDay 219: horseweed
Canadian fleabane, or horseweed (Erigeron canadensis), seems to be the poor relation to its Mexican counterpart…
Read moreDay 206: wild teasel
I think I’d almost grow the teasel for its botanical name alone – there’s something very satisfying about intoning ‘Dipsacus fullonum!’, loudly, as if it were some kind of Potterish incantation…
Read moreDay 198: purple toadflax
The notion of the uninvited guest carries with it an air of something annoying, even perhaps sinister; the character who turns up looking to subvert events to their own agenda…
Read moreDay 193: gardening opinions
We can often find ourselves frustrated with the crowds at plant shows or gardens; so many people, getting in the way of our photographs…
Read moreDay 181: bellbind
Aren’t we pretty, though? Delicate white trumpets upturned with a coquettish gaze, innocently knowing, butter-wouldn’t-melt. You’re not kidding me…
Read moreDay 174: car park plants
I park the car badly. Since the switch for the door mirrors broke off, I’m having to hang out of the driver’s door as I back up…
Read moreDay 110: the weirdness of weeding
Running my eye across the borders now, I’m reminded of what irks me most about our approach to gardening – our attitude to the plants we call ‘weeds’…
Read moreDay 107: dandelion time
Time is a tricksy character. We measure it in all situations by the appearance of regular markers and, in the garden, we use plants; the first snowdrop, the first blossom…
Read moreDay 58: winning the war
I am winning the war against couch grass. Scourge of many an allotment plot, it once romped unchallenged across the vegetable garden here, but no longer cuts quite such an impressive figure…
Read moreDay 3: Belonging
Winter presents the ideal opportunity for getting to grips with the brambles, but who really belongs more in the garden – the weeds, or the gardener?
Read moreDay 350: creeping woodsorrel
Thank heaven for creeping woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata). Not really for any intrinsic value the plant possesses – it’s not particularly ornamental, though I do quite like the variety with the deep maroon foliage…
Read moreDay 328: winter weedlings
Almost winter. The garden is drawing itself inward, but nobody seems to have told the weeds. Fine crops of juvenile foliage are appearing on perennial nettles…
Read moreThe Gardens, weeds & words podcast, Series 2 Episode 3
Weeds are generally shunned in the garden, entire sections of industry dedicated to their eradication. But what makes a weed, and who gets to decide? Garden designer Jack Wallington thinks we should not only be looking with a more kindly eye on these maligned plants, but using them with purpose in our gardens. We discuss his new book, Wild About Weeds, and discuss the practicalities of getting his message out there.
Read moreDay 256: ragwort
Ragwort gets a bad rap for being poisonous to horses, which it is, but that’s hardly the fault of the wildflower, and rather more of a system that manages to package it up in feed for domesticated beasts…
Read moreDay 217: bindweed
Perhaps it’s cruel of me to expect you to start your Monday morning with a weed, but I figured if we could come to terms with bindweed over breakfast, we’d be nicely set up for the week…
Read moreDay 137: wonderful weeds
The garden is frothing over just now – the hedgerows all about too, for May is the month when the cow parsley comes into flower…
Read moreDay 97: groundsel
I try to make a habit of being on the side of weeds, but it’s hard to love groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) …
Read moreDay 76: ground elder
The emerging leaves of this humble relative of the carrot are enough to strike fear into the heart of many a gardener. Ground elder, or goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) has a reputation as a tricky, invasive customer…
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