SUMMER 2021 ā SEE OUR RECENT PRESS ADS
A selection of our latest adverts as seen in leading publications such as English Garden, Fine Gardening, Mountain Living & many more. If you would like to request a brochure please click here.
Archives for 2021
Rot on!
Embracing the alchemy of decay will enhance the life ā plant, soil, wild and human ā in your garden. It was a gamble, but it was also a back-saving, pragmatic experiment from which the wilder life in my garden and I are now reaping rich, dark rewards.Ā Wood ā as chips, mulch, paths, poles, stakes, twigs, […]
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021
The Opus Grand Botanic
Splitting the Aster
Iām not keen on plant names being changed generally, because it can be very confusing. I never look at cimificfugas, tall autumn bottlebrushes with divided rich-burgundy foliage, and think of them as being remotely the same as rather boring, berried woodland acteas. The fact that a botanist has peered into their DNA and found it […]
September Ripening
The time to finally give up on the greenhouse vegetables is coming, but for me itās not here quite yet. The temperature has dropped and when I pop down the garden each morning it is now with a cardigan on, but I am still picking tomatoes and aubergines regularly, for now. Although it hasnāt been […]
Conserving the Autumn Garden: a southwest consideration
Golden leaves are beginning to cloak the upper slopes of the Rockies, and with the aspens turning so turns the season. As the British poet, Philip Larkin, would have it, āAutumn has caught us in our summer wear.ā Just like itās caught generations of gardeners before us. Turning to my treasured 240-year-old edition of the […]
Biennials for pollinators
Filling the garden with great plants can be a costly affair, but it doesnāt need to be. There are lots of fabulous garden plants that can be grown from seed, and not just the usual annuals. Pollinator plants Thereās a group of plants that are called biennials. It just means that as opposed to annuals, […]
Last flower from a lost tribe!
If you were a greenhouse gardener one hundred and fifty years ago you could have been growing twenty seven different species of the beautiful Spider flower. Listed in Paxtonās Botanical Dictionary as Cleome with another eight registered under the apparently near synonymous Gynandropsis there were three dozen or more available. Seventy five years ago Roy […]
Talking tomatoes ā and moreā¦
Early in the month, especially if it is warm and sunny, sow trays, pots or old growing bags with ācut and come again cropsā to harvest through autumn and into winter, think land cress, oriental salads, like pak choi, mizuna and mibuna greens plus lettuce, lambās lettuce, chicory and radish. You can also use whatās […]
Covering ground
In American yards, the default way of covering the soil is grass. Youāll see yards with no trees, no shrubs, no flowers, but thereās nearly always at least a little patch of grass. Very often the grass makes no sense. On city streets with tiny front gardens, shaded by trees and buildings, Iāll often see […]
Grow Fabulous Roses in ContainersāAnne Reeves Shares her Secrets
āRoses donāt like to live in pots. They all want their feet in the ground.ā I thought that old rose adage was trueāuntil I met author, photographer, and blogger, Anne Reeves. Her home garden in the Seattle area is overflowing with roses in containers. And many have been thriving for years in their potsāso I […]
Glasshouses and the art of living
Itās been quite a while since ladies fell onto their fainting couches or fumbled behind the fernery with their dashing callers ā a hot date back in the day. But once the happy couple settled into domestic propriety, the fragile young girls became women of some substance, with children to raise and a home and […]