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I’ve been ill. I’m not a sickly person. The occasional light cold, a low-level, non-specific viral something every now and then but this has been a doozy. My lovely man went down with it. Temperatures of 101 three days in a row. Really laid low. I did the sensible thing and slept in the spare… Continue reading The Need To Sow

In these first weeks of the year, after the distraction of Christmas and the New Year, the summer feels a long way away. Warm, sunny days to laze about in the garden, friends round to enjoy a relaxing afternoon with a long, cool drink and a bbq, children playing in the sandpit or treehouse, these… Continue reading A Time To Plan

In the last few weeks the leaves have tumbled from the trees, the march of autumn moving at a fast pace. The last of the birch leaves, so pretty and uplifting in their butter yellow autumn vestments, have been blown from their branches overnight by a hearty westerly.  Silver birch This year I have decided… Continue reading Learning to Love the Autumn Dark

I love Bees. I created a bee-friendly garden with a difference for my final college design assignment, we had to create a show garden or conceptual design, so they have been much on my mind. The garden this summer was awash with the buzzing of many different types of bees and indeed other pollinators. At… Continue reading Bees

I can measure the turning of the year by the shadows in my garden. If I sit on the terrace looking west I can see the weather moving over Streatham Vale up over the Hill towards me. The Sun comes from the other direction appearing over the house behind me and, depending on the time… Continue reading Creeping Shadows

Well, what can be said is that the last 12 months of weather have been interesting. Thinking back over the last year, in London, where I live and garden, Autumn 2017 didn’t arrive until well into November. The warm weather going on and on. There were frosts before Christmas but nothing that did much damage.… Continue reading Resilient Gardens

The last few months there has been one flower show after another. The big ones are the RHS showcase shows starting with Cardiff in April and at least one a month until Tatton Park at the end of July. In between these there numerous smaller events up and down the land. Of course the mummy… Continue reading Show Time!

I’ve been procrastinating about this latest blog post. I’ve been very busy and haven’t had the time to create the time to write. I first started to think about writing about six weeks ago when it was still cold and the evenings dark. The garden was only just waking up and my attempts at growing from… Continue reading Dirt under your fingernails

This year the weather has been a serious topic of conversation. When is it not in this Island of ours? It is either too wet. Too dry. Too hot or too cold. And cold is what I want to talk about. Since the New Year it has been very cold. Some might say unseasonably cold. We’ve… Continue reading Baby it’s cold outside

I love trees. I have realised that they are fundamental to my wellbeing. My emotional response is visceral. As you know I am an urban gardener for the most part. We have parks near by with Sweet and Horse Chestnuts and Oaks. The roads are lined with Maples, London Plane, Cherries and Acers. I am… Continue reading The Noble Tree