I have been revising solidly for weeks. The weather has been most kind: too rainy to go for walks, too frozen to plant my new Sorbus cashmiriana, which has been waiting patiently in its pot, propped back against the wall with a sack of potting compost (or 'growing media', if the RHS insists.) Thanks to…
Even as I edit these photos, which I took just four days ago, I can see that spring growth has already progressed. The skimmia buds have now opened almost completely, the drumstick primulas have grown another inch, and the hyacinths have stuck their chests out like indignant body-builders. Despite today's stormy skies and my having…
For non-gardeners, the dark days of February have little to recommend them. But for the gardener, February can be as full of delights as any of the summer months. From our front window my spirits are lifted by clumps of nodding snowdrops, battalions of iris reticulata, a burst of native primroses and winter…
Bare soil, the bare bones of the garden: winter is when your skills as a gardener are revealed. Anyone can fill a garden with flowers in July, but it's not so easy to keep the garden interesting through the damp, dark winter months. My main criticism of mine is a lack of structure, which I…
There is a strip of wilderness alongside the central wall that crosses the communal backgreen, onto which we look from our back windows. Various neighbours have attempted to tame this area, including Left-Neighbour who planted some beautiful tulips that valiantly and attractively broke through the thickets of ground elder at around Easter time. A wilderness…
