Blog
Magical Mahonia
It is New Year’s Eve, beautifully cold and dry, and I am walking home from my cousin’s house when I notice what appears to be a bundle ...
A berry merry Christmas: the magic of mistletoe
‘Mistletoe hung from the gas brackets in all the front parlours; there was sherry and walnuts and bottled beer and crackers by the dess...
Christmas Holly
It’s the food that tells me Christmas is almost here. Supermarket shelves groaning under the weight of boxed mince pies and Christmas p...
Festive foliage and bountiful berries: Christmas window boxes and containers
Christmas is coming and the goose – or turkey - is getting fat and the decorations are up in high streets everywhere. My local neighbou...
Bay Watch
The wind is moaning down the chimney, and I can feel an icy draught flowing across the kitchen floor. This is only to be expected livin...
Champion chompers: woodlice, millipedes and earthworms – nature’s mini recyclers
Champion chompers: woodlice, millipedes and earthworms – nature’s mini recyclers
Move a flowerpot or lift a rock in the ga...
Bugle Blast
As I write this, I am looking out of the back doors of the garden centre, on a wet and chilly November morning, across plant tables dra...
Wakehurst Place in autumn
Wakehurst Place in autumn
It’s a grey day in mid-October, unnecessarily chilly for the time of year I feel, and a shock to...
Something borrowed, something blue
Something borrowed, something blue
What are your early gardening memories? One of my formative horticultural recollections...
Pumpkins: ghoulish gourds for Halloween
Pumpkins: ghoulish gourds for Halloween
Autumn has well and truly arrived, and echoing the fiery leaf colour setting the c...
Ornamental Crab Apple Trees.
Ornamental Crab Apple Trees.
Mother wasn’t a domestic goddess. However, due to the era she was born into, domesticity beca...
Cornus: a plant for all seasons
Perhaps best known for their dazzling displays of brightly-coloured stems in winter, bringing warm highlights to gardens when little el...
