So much of both the enjoyment and frustration of gardening comes from attempting to bring together plants that will enhance each other in look, in habit and, especially, in colour to make a pleasing picture. It is the most difficult thing to get right. I am willing to bet that,…
There are three certain things in life: death, taxes and the presence of at least one apple tree in the garden you get when you move house. Of all ‘top fruits’ (that is tree fruits, as opposed to ‘soft fruits’ such as blackcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries), apples are the most…
‘Tis the season to spend money and ’tis no good pushing back against the fact. Nor, I imagine, do we really want to, since we don’t want to be thought a pinchpenny at Christmas. Blame Charles Dickens for that. The trouble is that as our friends and relations get older…
I like to think that I am a proper gardener, by which I mean that cataracts and hurricanoes have to spout until they drench our steeple (we live next door to the church) before I am coaxed inside for tea. However, although I can be stalwart if a task needs…
What is it with gardeners and coloured foliage? Why do purple, red or yellow leaves seem to appeal so strongly? Is it a positive aesthetic reaction to these colours or is it that garden centres push them so hard, as ‘exciting’ alternatives to the supposedly boring old green versions of…
In the late 1980s, I was involved in the making of two series of programmes for Channel 4, entitled Village Show. We visited flower shows all over the kingdom, including one close to where I lived. I remember the director saying to me, with a melancholy shake of the head,…
I can’t help it. Every time a friend tells me that they bought their house because of the wonderfully friable, medium loam soil in the garden, I gnash my teeth. How I should love such a house. But I chose to live in Northamptonshire, where there’s a good chance any…
Ah, the merry month of May. How much we look forward to it, since it always feels like the time of greatest promise in our gardens. You can almost taste the optimism in the air. The late tulips are in full flight, herbaceous perennials are in fresh green clothes. The…
Query What can I do about droopy tulips? We are very fortunate to have a super collection of different varieties of tulips in our new garden. However, I find that they do not seem to last long when cut for the house. Can you suggest ways to prevent them looking…
