Early evening, and the blackbird is sounding the alarm from the neighbour’s Bramley apple tree at the end of the garden. She is off her nest (the blackbird, not the neighbour)…
Read moreDay 99: one-trick pony
In a small garden, the sensible advice is to choose plants that have more than one season of interest…
Read moreDay 98: snake's head fritillary
One of those plants that prompts me each spring, on seeing it everywhere as it comes into bloom, to ask myself why I’m still not growing it…
Read moreDay 97: thinning
I’m going to ignore, for the moment, the fact that it’s snowing again, and concentrate on what I originally came out into the garden to talk about, namely, the practice of thinning. As distinct from weeding…
Read moreDay 96: trilliums
When it comes to my ideal qualities for a plant, close to the top of the list would be the ability to thrive under neglect…
Read moreDay 95: purple periwinkle
I think I was virulently opposed to vinca at an earlier point in my gardening life – something to do with having to liberate a dry slope from the clutches of an unappreciated greater periwinkle…
Read moreDay 94: horny goat weed
Just-in-time might be an industrial concept of more historical interest than contemporary relevance thanks to Brexit but it’s alive and well in our garden…
Read moreDay 93: lady's smock
I spent a good while this morning hoeing through weedlings of hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) that were enjoying their first flush of growth in a client’s flowerbed…
Read moreDay 92: don't panic
Tulips popping everywhere, forget-me-nots peeping from the bud – a growing sense of alarm at quite how much of last season remains to be dealt with…
Read moreDay 91: purple gromwell
I left it too late to get to the nursery yesterday and, having a planty itch that needed scratching, threw my principles to the wind and headed to the DIY shed…
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