Everything in the garden looks fresh just now – even the elder, coming into bud…
Read moreDay 144: No Mow May
No Mow May is going fabulously in my garden, at least from the lawn’s perspective…
Read moreDay 143: gardening à deux
Greeting old friends you’ve not seen in the garden since before the winter is always an occasion for joy, though this time tempered with an extra layer of emotion…
Read moreDay 142: herb robert
The woodland floor is filling out, the volume of Green Stuff growing exponentially by the day just now. Bright green dock and wood avens are the latest to appear…
Read moreDay 141: a reckoning of tulips
There is to be a reckoning of tulips. Normally everything stays put in the ground…
Read moreDay 140: cow parsley
I’ve been waiting patiently for cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), that froth that sits along the edges of roads and woodlands…
Read moreDay 139: nettles for dinner
Every year around now – that first great flush of growth that always comes in May after rain – the stinging nettles appear at their most inviting…
Read moreDay 138: garden pest
I’ve identified the new critter in the garden. The creature that’s been biting the flowers off the tulips…
Read moreDay 137: in praise of the crabapple
Why would anyone not want a crabapple tree in their garden? Firstly, there are the flowers…
Read moreDay 136: Veronica Speedwell
I’ve always thought the name Veronica Speedwell sounds like a character straight out of a sixties spy novel…
Read moreDay 135: stopping for bluebells
We are invariably in a rush to get somewhere, you and I. For one so completely at home in the cool, green calm of the woods…
Read moreDay 134: lilac dance
The lilac is on the point of bursting into bloom; I can’t help sticking my nose into each candle-shaped inflorescence…
Read moreDay 133: woodland floor planting
There’s a subtlety to the way that Mother Nature plants that eludes the human gardener, so far from the grids and patterns of our planting plans…
Read moreDay 132: scented sentries
A building without plants by the entrance always seems a little austere – doubly so when it’s a home…
Read moreDay 131: droopy Tuesday
My tulips are flopping, and I rather love them that way. Of course I’ve not cut them from my own garden – these glorious beauties are from a kind friend…
Read moreDay 130: Erythronium
The dog’s tooth violet isn’t a violet at all, but a member of the lily family, and closely related to the tulip…
Read moreDay 129: dog violet
I’m not sure you’re supposed to laugh at your flowers. But in all honesty, I’ve seen the violets look better…
Read moreDay 128: black and blue
Always the first of the geraniums to appear, the mourning widow (Geranium phaeum) sneaks into the borders while everyone’s making a fuss of the tulips…
Read moreDay 127: the bashful bluebell
The Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) have arrived at last – though it might be that I’m the only person in the country who’s been waiting for them.
Read moreDay 126: planting combinations
The flowers have been cosying up to one another, but they needn’t think they’ve gotten away with it…
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