Every gardener carries a notebook of some kind or another. The sensible ones write therein with a pencil – possibly a biro, but where’s the joy in writing with a biro…
Read moreDay 263: old curiosity pots
While few would deny the merits of a well made, attractively aged terracotta pot, there’s nothing to say that a plant’s precious root system shouldn’t be contained in something altogether more esoteric…
Read moreDay 262: Tiarella ‘Sugar and Spice’
The frothy pink and white flowers on this foamflower (Tiarella ‘Sugar and Spice’) are very much the icing on the cake for a plant which has it all – at least if you have areas of light shade…
Read moreDay 261: Geranium 'Dusky Crug'
Cats have catnip – but for me, there are purple-leaved plants. I have to restrain myself as they always look their best in a ratio of at the very least six to one in favour of their more verdantly foliaged fellows and, were I to be indulged, the whole garden would be one mass of maroon…
Read moreDay 260: ruby chard
Is it possible my ruby chard will remain unslugmunched for the duration of the colder months? I do hope so. This is one of the aesthetic vegetables that really make the kitchen garden sing with colour, texture and structure…
Read moreDay 259: Fuchsia 'Hawkshead'
Probably the closest you’ll get to having a bush full of snowdrops in summer, that’s Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ for you. In shape the flowers are not dissimilar from its near relative Fuchsia magellanica ‘Riccartonii’…
Read moreDay 258: roses in the shade
The roses keep going, whatever I throw at them. In this garden it’s mostly dappled shade, especially at this end of the year – as a rule of thumb roses should have at least four to six hours of direct sun daily…
Read moreDay 257: Echinacea 'Southern Belle'
I’m not sure how I feel about ‘fun’ flowers, but there’s something about this pink coneflower Echinacea purpurea ‘Southern Belle’ that makes me smile…
Read moreDay 256: ragwort
Ragwort gets a bad rap for being poisonous to horses, which it is, but that’s hardly the fault of the wildflower, and rather more of a system that manages to package it up in feed for domesticated beasts…
Read moreDay 255: Allium 'Summer Beauty'
When it comes to alliums the larger varieties often steal most of the glory. Quite rightly, many of us know ‘Purple Sensation’, while diehard ornamental onion fans will go big or go home with christophii or giganteum…
Read moreDay 254: snowberry
We’ve arrived at that time of year where I concede that there might be some point in the existence of the snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) – at least for the gardener…
Read moreDay 253: pelargonium cuttings
Pelargoniums must be one of the absolute best things for the clumsy gardener (raises hand) to grow, for the simple reason that any bit you might accidentally snap off is almost certain to grow into a new plant…
Read moreDay 252: Japanese lily
Lilies add just that little flavour of the exotic to the garden. They’re not hard to grow (always assuming you can keep the dreaded lily beetle at bay – squish, ewwww...)…
Read moreDay 251: by the back door
Some of the best advice for new gardeners I’ve ever read (it was in Alys Fowler’s The Thrifty Gardener) is to start your garden at the back door…
Read moreDay 250: hitchhikers
It’s never just about the flowers. The flamboyant attention grabbers (the rude bits of plants, let’s never forget that) might be the gateway drug to a lifelong horticultural habit, but anyone who’s been gardening for more than a single season knows that the garden is a complex web of relationships…
Read moreDay 249: nasturtiums
Nasturtiums are irrepressible, you plant them one year and they come back over and again, wandering out from their anchoring point in the soil and sending questing stems in all directions…
Read moreDay 248: planting combinations
One of the joys of gardening is in trying out different planting combinations. We pour over pictures in glossy magazines and now on social media, visit the gardens of other people when we’re able and dissect their beds and borders to the nth degree…
Read moreDay 247: Eurybia divaricata
I still haven’t got used to this not being Aster divaricatus since the taxonomic boffins changed the names about, but the common name remains the white wood aster and I feel my tardiness is at least partly justified…
Read moreDay 246: Veronicastrum
As descriptive plant names go, Culvers root, or black root, fails rather spectacularly by failing to conjure up a holistic impression of Veronicastrum virginicum, concentrating as it does on the subterranean parts…
Read moreDay 245: Zinnia 'Queen Red Lime'
The annual I have the most fun growing from seed – Zinnia elegans ‘Queen Red Lime’ – has a fascinating flower that’s different every day…
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