With growing signs of the environmental damage caused by peat extraction on both a local and global scale, the quality and availability of peat-free growing mediums for both domestic gardeners and professional growers is on the up. At the same time, general awareness around the issue of peat in gardening products remains low. So why’s it taking so long?
Read moreGardening as a career
Gardening? It’s not the career of choice for most people. Especially when there are so many other ways you could be earning a living. In this post, I explain why I took the choice to make a career of it, and try to gain an understanding of why this decision seems to cause mild discomfort for others.
Read moreResolution
In which I resolve not to make any news years resolutions. And realize that, without intending to, I’ve been making them all along.
Read moreThe dying of the light
Have you ever loved something with great intensity, whilst all the while wishing you could change just one thing about it? Of course you have. That’s how I am with Autumn. I have a strong emotional connection to this time of year, from the earliest signs of its approach with those first morning mists at the end of August, which send a shudder of relief through my whole frame. But barely at the mid point of September, and it’s already dark before eight, getting earlier each day. I could do without that.
Read moreA day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words
To The Walled Nursery in Hawkhurst on a baking Sunday afternoon. Someone forgot to send the weather the memo that this is England, and it’s supposed to be chucking it down every August bank holiday weekend. People caught up with, and plants bought.
Read moreThe beautification of weeds
You can be a long way into a game before you even realise that’s where you are. Who defines the field of play, the value of each piece, the manner in which one element should engage with the others? You might wonder what the Cinderella syndrome could possibly have to do with gardening, but consider how we designate certain plants as weeds, and all should become clear.
Read moreWaiting for snowdrops
January can be a miserable month, so a few weeks of bright, dry weather make for a welcome start to the year. Refreshingly chilly conditions in which to while away the garden hours until the first flowers of spring appear.
Read moreResolution 2017
I’m not big on new year’s resolutions. To my mind, every day brings with it an opportunity to do better – why wait till January to make them, and then spend the remainder of the year berating yourself for breaking them? With something seasonal, like gardening, however, it makes sense. But I’m still limiting myself to one.
Read moreThe bonfire of deplorables
Autumn turns to winter, the leaves are all but tamed, and a short window of opportunity opens. While it’s still warm enough feel your fingers, there’s just time to clear the beds in preparation for a good, thick mulch. But what to do with all the stuff this produces – compost, or burn? It helps to have a plan.
Read moreThe quick & the dead
There’s a lot of rot in the garden at this time of year, and that’s no bad thing. I visited Waterperry Gardens at the weekend, where the ghosts of this year’s herbaceous perennials are taking their final bow.
Read moreGetting on with it
Not long now till many of our trees, shrubs and perennials divest themselves of their foliage before swooning into a hibernal slumber. Meanwhile, less glamourous things – semi-evergreen, hardy biennial and annual things – are quietly going about their business, apparently unfazed by the drama, while we pass them by..
Read more#WordlessWednesday in the garden
Can a garden blog be all words, only photography, or a mixture of both? The answer might seem obvious, but considering the question can be a useful exercise when working out the optimum balance between words and pictures.
Read moreHeat stress
Taking a summer holiday can be a traumatic prospect for the gardener. But with a bit of preparation, there’s no cause to worry that your plants will die of thirst in your absence. What’s more, a decision to step aside momentarily from the perpetual onward march of the gardening year creates the thinking space in which to reflect on the current season, and plan for the year to come.
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