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…
Read moreDay 39: what passes for snow
The snow has arrived here, though it doesn’t look as though it will make anything other than a fleeting impact upon the garden; tiny, delicate flakes, drifting about playfully on the air…
Read moreDay 38: kind of blue
Glinting out at me, ankle high as I trundle a barrow past, a hint of blue – the first blue of the year. Jewel-bright berries cheer us through the winter…
Read moreDay37: home wrecker
Someone could live here. Days are drawing out, and thoughts inevitably turn to spring, I can I feel the urge to get involved with the wintery detritus…
Read moreDay 36: George Henry Kern
'George Henry Kern' is undoubtedly an excellent small magnolia whose pink flowers in spring possess the best of both stellata and lily-flowered magnolia varieties…
Read moreDay 35: too wet to waft
It’s been a dreary, rain-soaked day, and the hazel catkins are looking bedraggled. So prolific with their pollen, which must waft upon the wind to find its way to the tiny pink female flowers…
Read moreDay 34: no neat freak
I fear yesterday’s post may have given an inaccurate picture of the planting in my garden. It’s only ever that tidy (sterile?) near the less intensively-planted, shrubbier parts…
Read moreDay 33: low tide
Lockdown is confirming what I already know about our garden – it’s at its best in spring, and winter... well. Let’s just say, winter in our garden requires an exercise of the imagination…
Read moreDay 32: surviving February
February has a trick up its sleeve; whilst being by all objective measures the shortest month of the year, it somehow contrives to feel the longest…
Read moreDay 31: a garden edit
Raining all day – sat at my desk working on a book chapter, watching paragraphs emerge onto the screen, take shape, fill the space in such a manner as to influence how I feel about what came before, and what’s to follow…
Read moreDay 30: endings and beginnings
At a time where almost nothing in our daily experience seems clear cut – even the seasons seem to merge into a confounding jumble - the appeal of a neat edge is hard to over state…
Read moreDay 29: hellebore squats
Winter trains the gardener to be keen-eyed in the quest for colour; those flashes of delight that brighten an otherwise sober outlook
Read moreDay 28: ani-seedy
A dull, mizzly and oddly mild January afternoon. Knees and fingers are generously besmirched with mud and, feeling in the need of a pick-me-up,
Read moreDay 27: bud spotting
It becomes something of a sport around now. You’ve probably already engaged in a spot if it yourself – peering closely at bare twigs for the faintest sign of swelling…
Read moreDay 26: time for tea
There’s one essential aspect of gardening that receives insufficient attention within traditional horticultural instruction. I refer, of course, to the following question: how do you have your tea?
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