Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
There’s a magic about mistletoe (Viscum album), one that’s not entirely comfortable. A strangeness to a shrub that seems so alive at a time of year when much of the natural world is shutting down, a hemiparasite that requires the support of a tree and which, while doing no lasting damage, arrives uninvited and proceeds to take up residence by quite literally getting under the skin of its host. At the same time, its otherworldly weirdness is the source of its wonder – its well-documented significance in Druidic and Celtic belief systems a given, but just hold a piece in your hand and drink in its smooth, grey-green, almost rubbery bark and leaves, its fat, yellowy white berries... deeply odd, and deeply familiar at the same time. I find I’m conflicted about a plant that I love to have around, but at the same time somehow gives me the willies. Just my response, and I realise it makes no sense – but then again I’m not sure it’s meant to.
A year of garden coaching
I’m very excited about my new venture – it’s a way for me to work with more people than I can physically get around to, helping them to make the very best of their gardens in a way that suits the life they lead. If you’d like to find out more, please click here to book for a January 2020 start.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.
