The Early Season

It was rather a weak start to the snowdrop season here, a little disappointing but not entirely unexpected. The earliest flowering snowdrops here are of the Greek species, Galanthus reginae olgae and its cultivars and these don't enjoy the conditions in my garden. I suppose that should come as no surprise when their native range …

Rewilding – Briefly!

When I read, so very often, suggestions that we should leave our gardens go a little wild, should allow the wildflowers (weeds!) grow in the lawn etc I feel it is a very misplaced suggestion when directed at a rural garden. There are about two miles of wild hedgerows between our garden and the beginnings …

I Suppose That’s It Now Until February!

We were very much in that Carpe Diem frame of mind all of last week. There had been a long run of bad weather with particularly high rainfall and strong winds so that there had been many days spent indoors and cabin fever was beginning to set in. Because of this we had determined that …

That’s it now, probably, maybe, kind of…

Oh, there comes a time when you wish the seasons/weather would simply get on with it. I can tire of this neither here nor there season - a touch of the biblical, "Would that you were hot or cold etc". We have had a mild autumn, very mild, warmer than usual for this time of …

It was the Best of Days; it was the Worst of Days!

Not quite as Charles Dickens wrote but my view is of a narrower, more immediate and more intimate section of life - just two days in my own garden, to be exact. Just to differ a little further from Mr. Dickens, it was a case of the worst of days followed by the best of …

There are Giants on the Earth in these Days!

Very Christmassy, in a sort of way, but there was a sense of walking in a winter wonderland today at Mount Congreve Gardens (near us here in Waterford). No, they hadn't spoiled the gardens by draping decorations or lights along the way but there certainly has been a noticeable change through our visits over the …

Books, Briefly!

The dreadful rainy and windy day was not a cause of complaint today as it came at an opportune time. I wrote in early September of plans afoot to move my gardening books to better accommodation. They had been crammed into a press for many years, two books deep so that many were inaccessible without …

Pots

Harriet Rycroft might well have named her book, The Pots in my Backyard, for it has a homely, unassuming tone running through it which is very endearing. There was no styling of pot arrangements for the many photographs which illustrate this book, no photoshopping of images to add a touch more colour or contrast to …

A Little Bit of Wonk

How fortunate we are in life to have among us those rare, to be loved and treasured people, those genuine garden experts and high achievers who don't seek the high ground of "personality", nor assume a cloak of great importance but retain the simple and pure enjoyment of gardening and of plants and whose love …

End of Season

Lismore Castle Gardens close for the season at the end of October so it has been on our mind for the last week that we would fit in a final visit, something that was a challenge with the very changeable weather of this past week when strong winds and heavy rain threatened each day. When …