I have always believed that you should only write or talk about what you know
I hope you had a lovely and happy Christmas. As the year comes to an end, it is time to think about how your garden fared over the past 12 months and to make plans for next year. What did well and what would you change? If plants are in the wrong place we have…
Buying a gift for a gardener is fairly simple. Being a practical sort of person if anyone bought me a tub of fertiliser, some compost or some propagation pots I would be very grateful. But such utilitarian items may not be what you want to give – it is bit like when dad would buy…
If it is too cold, wet and miserable to do anything meaningful in the garden, or if you have food to prepare, it is handy to have a small, simple job that is easy to do and doesn’t involve paddling about in mud. Making new plants for the garden or to give to friends is…
Helleborus niger is popularly called the Christmas rose but, of course, it is not a rose, nor anything to do with roses. But the flowers are vaguely rose-like and it can bloom in time for Christmas. Native to central Europe, usually in woodland on alkaline soils, it has long been a feature of British gardens….
Christmas is not far away and that means thoughts turn to turkeys, tinsel and poinsettias. Poinsettias are the best loved (and sometimes most loathed) of all Christmas potplants. Their colourful bracts surround the cluster of small yellow flowers at the end of each shoot. For me, it is not really Christmas without a poinsettia but…
November has been unusually mild, and wet, for weeks, but the weather turned this week. The first frosts of autumn have blackened dahlias, brought down the last of the leaves from the trees and brought more birds to the feeders. It is always sad to see summer flowers stopped in their tracks but we have…
If you have been hesitating about planting bulbs for spring, now is the time to act. It is really rather late for small bulbs and daffodils – they will grow but you need to rush. But it is the perfect time to plant tulips. The photo above is me planting all the smaller bulbs of…
Up until this morning it has been a mild week, though wet and windy. Unusually, there are lots of flowers in the garden including some tender perennials thanks to the lack of real frost so far. But a lot of the colour in the garden comes from autumn foliage, some of which is hanging on…
After bringing us a summer of glorious colour, dahlias now need our help to survive winter. You probably planted your dahlias as tubers in spring. These tubers can now be saved for replanting next year. Dahlias are not truly hardy – if the growths or the tubers are frozen they will die. The active part…
Don’t forget the clocks changed last night. I apologise for mentioning Christmas so early in the season but the shops have their decorations out, people have started to buy tins of biscuits and tubs of chocolates and it is only a month till ‘stir-it-up Sunday’ (November 23). The reason for mentioning Christmas is that potted…