Pink, or blue. Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) can’t seem to make up its mind…
Read moreDay 69: ground ivy
The evergreen ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is beginning to flex its muscles in beds, borders and lawns…
Read moreDay 68: Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
For years I put up with an inferior euphorbia. Don’t ask me why. I’d meant to plant Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii …
Read moreDay 67: Begonia luxurians
Those who have a thing for plants will tell you, there are worse habits to have – it’s far easier on the pocket, for example, than a passion for vintage Porsches or posh handbags…
Read moreDay 66: nesting birds
Mrs Blackbird surveys my gardening activity from out of a dark, gold-rimmed eye…
Read moreDay 65: yew pollen
I happened to glance at my yew hedge the other day, only to see it surrounded by a golden haze, shifting in the breeze…
Read moreDay 64: lawn edging
There is nothing in the garden quite like edging, and edging a lawn in particular…
Read moreDay 63: purple-leaved plum
Everyone should all plant a cherry tree, for the joy of its flowers in spring, and its shade in the summer…
Read moreDay 62: perennial nettle
Forget the flowers – maybe the truest sign of spring’s arrival is that moment when the perennial nettles (Urtica dioica) begin to leaf up.
Read moreDay 61: chilli seedlings
I’m a little behind with my chilli seedlings, only just sowing them now. There’s just time – chillies like a long season, and I would have been better off starting them off on a window ledge in February…
Read moreDay 60: kentia palm
The change from winter to spring brings a tricky little step-change into the life of the houseplant collector..
Read moreDay 59: Verbena bonariensis
Verbena bonariensis is one of that category of plants that usefully give you height, without completely obscuring your view…
Read moreDay 58: Iris reticulata
The first proper flash of blue in the year, Iris reticulata has to be one of the highlights of February…
Read moreDay 57: cardoon corpses
have a weakness for cardoons (Cynara cardunculus). Every aspect of the things fills me with delight…
Read moreDay 56: winter aconite
It’s all terribly sophisticated in the winter-spring flower bed – until the winter aconites (Eranthis) turn up…
Read moreDay 55: couch grass
Familiar to every allotment holder, couch grass (Elymus repens) romps with unabashed glee through untended flower and vegetable beds…
Read moreDay 54: flowering quince
Your mum may refer to the flowering quince as ‘Japonica’. Botanists would have you refer to these shrubs as Chaenomeles speciosa, or a hybrid between this and the actual Japanese quince Chaenomeles japonica…
Read moreDay 53: crocus
Snowdrops are terribly tasteful, and hellebores rather majestic. But crocuses are pure fun…
Read moreDay 52: rhubarb
While everybody’s making enthusiastic noises about snowdrops and hellebores, and greeting the opening of every crocus with expressions of rapture, things in the veg garden are a little more quiet, though of no lesser consequence…
Read moreDay 51: goat willow
Many of us feel a bit bereft over winter, when the garden is at its least ostentatious. But one advantage of this time of year is the opportunity to pay closer attention to details which we hardly notice when distracted by the glitz and glamour of flowers and fresh growth…
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