Plants and People.

The Head Gardener would say that I lack a certain finesse as a gardener; that I lack that attention to detail and routine that brings good to excellent; that I am fine as an "edges and hedges" gardener, as Jean Van Der Lee (a Dublin gardener) used describe her husband - another long-suffering Under Gardener …

Of A Friday Evening.

There are two very pretty magnolias in view from the kitchen window and they look especially good as they are lit by the setting sun. We have admired them as we have done the after-dinner washup over the last week and have commented that we must go out and photograph them but it was only …

It’s All Happening Now!

With a positive telling our full day in the garden yesterday might be described as an excellent example of the "Carpe Diem" attitude but, if truth be told, it was more a case of headstrong revolt against cabin fever for it was preceded by days of horrible weather with gales, heavy rain and flooding. After …

Mount Congreve Today in Pictures

Writing a second time today about Mount Congreve Gardens might seem excessive but we did visit and enjoy the gardens again today. My account of the gardens will be through my photographs. I have arranged the photographs into the sequence of our walk. Click to enlarge and to begin a slideshow: Magnolia x veitchii Magnolia …

Magical March Magnolias

March and magnolias is a combination balanced on a very fine knife edge for there are years when they flourish and perform with a brilliance that can justifiably be described as awesome and others when the blossoms are reduced to a disappointing dirty brown having been hit by a hard March frost. This year has …

Altamont Gardens

There is an inclination to pay less attention to those gardens we visit most often; they become almost everyday and lack the surprises which might otherwise prompt one to finger the keyboard. However, when I consider that we have visited Altamont Gardens several times each year for the past forty years it would be remiss …

Ffffffing February

We would like to be alliterative in our title but the mind runs to words which might cause offense. I suppose I could have said Freezing February but that wasn't really the case. Yes, it was cold, the fingers suffered in the garden, but it wasn't Arctic by any means; there wasn't snow or ice …

From the Bookshelf

That wretched Christmas song comes to mind, "Oh, the weather outside is frightful" etc but time indoors had me reading back over a few books I hadn't taken to hand for a long while. William Stearn and E. A. Bowles lead on to Vita Sackville-West and that group of books which were simply reprints of …

Making Tough Choices

The gardening beginner must find it disappointing and discouraging when a plant dies and I wonder if it is something which might put one off gardening afterwards. Nothing succeeds like success while failure is disheartening. For the more experienced gardener a certain level of failure is acceptable; indeed, taking a chance with a plant with …

What A Bore!

As happens at this time of the year a number of new hellebores were purchased and added to those already growing in the garden. A hedge of hypericum, along the top of a retaining wall above a patio area, and a line of pendulous cotoneasters hanging over the same wall were dug out, removed and …