The Rain Dance and more besides!

Waterford, south-east Ireland, 26th June 2021. My habitual position when weeding in the garden is on my knees and the Head Gardener has commented that it is the nearest I ever come to prayer. However, when the garden is showing signs of stress, of drying out from lack of moisture, of plants failing to thrive …

Some Benton Irises

Sir Cedric Morris was a doubly gifted man, an accomplished, respected and successful artist and also a wonderful gardener who introduced an extraordinary range of beautiful irises. He established the East Anglian Art School at Benton End and also pursued his interest in breeding irises there. Reportedly, he would sow as many as a thousand …

White Has It All!

Waterford, south-east Ireland, 19th June 2021 “Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.”― Coco Chanel There were two occasions during this past week when happenchance gave me a gardening activity I really enjoy. The …

Sexual Deception

All plants have a strategy for reproduction but that of the Bee orchid is especially interesting. It has developed so that in appearance it resembles a female bee – the pink sepals to the back of the flower resemble wings while the three petals to the front are extremely modified: two are short and stumpy …

That’s Not Waste Ground!

A factory close to us was demolished some years back with the intention that the area would be redeveloped. Then came the economic recession and the redevelopment - grand hotel, leisure facilities etc - never arrived and the areas was simply left to nature - waste ground? Nature abhors a vacuum - so said Aristotle …

All’s Well that end’s Well.

Waterford, south-east Ireland, 12th June 2021 It wasn't the best of gardening weeks; the weather was against us and we even took two days off to go "orchideering", one to the mountains and the other to the seaside, and, though they were damp days, they turned out to be a very pleasant ones and gave …

Rain, Bees, Wasps and Northern Marsh.

We miss our "days out" in these dark-clouded Covid days. Despite government easing of restrictions, we will not be dining out nor drinking outdoors, nor meeting up with others, but will continue our lives of being cautious and careful and, perhaps, a little fearful for ourselves. Days out were always something we enjoyed a great …

A Little Bit Wibbly Wobbly

Waterford, south-east Ireland, 5 June 2021 That's the way it goes sometimes; not straight and narrow but off-plan, a little askew, a little bit wibbly wobbly. But, you know, a bit of wibbly wobbly fits in very well in the garden, especially a garden in a rural setting. Stiff formal would not suit out rural …

Tom Stuart-Smith: Drawn from the Land – A Review.

Tom Stuart-Smith has deservedly earned recognition as one of the great British garden and landscape designers. His reimagining of the box parterre in the walled garden at Broughton Grange where the hedging was organised not in a traditional geometric layout but following the cell pattern of a leaf as viewed under the microscope brought him …