I mentioned a few days back that, contrary to my better judgement, we would soon be welcoming another maidenhair fern into our home. She’s arrived…
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 57: hori hori
I think I’m slightly terrified of my hori hori. There’s no doubting that it’s an effective and hugely versatile gardening tool, but...just look at the thing…
Read moreDay 56: false spring
A run of dry weather, a glimpse of the sun two days running, and everyone’s talking about a false spring. Irrespective of winter being over at the end of the week – by the meteorological measure at least – I think this says more about our collectively fragile state of mind…
Read moreDay 55: aide memoire
Some gardeners are blessed with brilliant memories. For the rest of us, there’s labelling, as long as we remember to carry this out with assiduity…
Read moreDay 54: messy but marvellous
I have a theory that, when it comes to bitty looking borders, it’s early spring bulbs that have the potential to contribute the greatest degree of uncoordinated visual noise to the garden…
Read moreDay 53: Faith, hope…
Today the sun shone, and a person could be forgiven for having entertained a belief in the imminent arrival of spring. The ground is beginning to dry…
Read moreDay 52: new recruits
I’m starting to take an inventory of the houseplants – what’s looking good, what’s looking less than happy after a gloomy winter getting frazzled by the central heating…
Read moreDay 51: tipping the scales
What a difference a week makes. From snow and sub-zero temperatures to much milder fare, with a little sunshine thrown in for good measure…
Read moreDay 50: head gardeners
We’re all head gardeners at home. We get to make the decisions, manage the budget, hand out tasks to the under-gardeners, though we rarely have a staff and volunteers to manage…
Read moreDay 49: all strung out
Imagine the shame of running out of twine on the job. I mean – it shouldn’t happen to a gardener, but last week, in the middle of training a rose against the garage wall, it did…
Read moreDay 48: scarlet willow
It’s helpful to hold a mental image of what you want to achieve at the forefront of your mind, the better to get you through the slogging stages. The fiery stems of pollarded scarlet willow shining brightly in the winter sun…
Read moreDay 47: a mudsome thaw
Thaw day – the snow has been and gone, the snow drops are in various states of disarray – the single species stubbornly buttoned up …
Read moreDay 46: tough love
Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen. As a phrase, it’s probably not going to top the list of the most useful gardening aphorisms, but it certainly seems to work in certain cases…
Read moreDay 45: change coming
Change is coming, riding in from the west – probably, by the time we’ve all had our coffee this morning, it will have arrived. Milder air, and rain that falls with steady predictability…
Read moreDay 44: flatliners
The indoor plants are rightly looking nervous, well aware that it’s at this point every year, as spring is faintly to be glimpsed on the horizon, that I get a little careless….
Read moreDay 43: after the snow
The snow is in retreat, and in its wake ice, slush, and the creep creep of small evergreen things around the house. The ivy, naturally – it thinks we haven’t noticed it climbing towards the tiles over the bay window…
Read moreDay 42: bathroom buddy
The melianthus has taken up temporary residence in the bathroom basin. I have a habit of killing these poor things, which follows a pattern…
Read moreDay 41: Viburnum tinus
Viburnum tinus could be excused for being a little miffed. Entirely overlooked in favour of Dawn, the smelly relative (Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’, flowering on bare wood in winter)…
Read moreDay 40: Pinus mugo
Be careful what you wish for, they said, and, suddenly, the snow has arrived and it’s more Christmassy than Christmas. At least it is here on the patio table, where a recently acquired dwarf pine seems to be carrying off the winter look…
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