Those Gardening Thoughts

The garden is regularly a place of thought; gardening an opportunity for consideration of life, of life's events, of its twists and turns, its ups and downs. My thoughts regularly veer towards the sadder aspects of life but also to the mundane practicalities of thinking of shopping lists, of what needs to be done for …

A Visit to Bodnant Gardens

A trip to Wales to visit gardens would be hopelessly incomplete without a visit to Bodnant Gardens. Its location, design and planting make it one of the outstanding gardens of Britain and a visit in any season is a great treat.# Bodnant has been in the care of The National Trust since 1949 and are …

Quite a Contrast at Mount Congreve Gardens.

The gardens at Mount Congreve have the great advantage of proximity; they are only a ten minute drive away and are regularly the choice destination for a walk on those days when the weather mitigates against travelling any distance. So it was yesterday. The forecast for the entire day was poor with consistent rain expected …

Colour, Light and Form

Light, brightness and sparkling colour are nowadays seen as essential for any garden to be considered attractive and a garden without a high proportion of plants in beaming flower is deemed to lack interest, to be dull, even boring. Some modern gardens couple bright colourful planting with a non-design approach to the layout resulting in …

Live, Learn, Forget!

Oh, the peculiar fashion in which our memory works. Some kind person gave me the name of this poppy earlier in the year but for love nor money I couldn't remember what it was so I decided to post a photograph as it is in flower again and miraculously the name came back to me …

At Bodysgallan Hall

We took ourselves off to north Wales early this week for a few days of garden visiting. It is an area we have visited several times, staying previously in Caernarfon and Beaumaris where Bodnant Gardens and those at Plas Newydd and Plas Cadnant are within easy range with Powys Castle, Erddig and Chirk within a …

Underperforming and Undermined August

In sporting terms, August was up against it as it had been preceded by two record breaking months. June had been the hottest month on record ever in Ireland and July the wettest so August really had to do something to earn its place as a significant month in this year. It failed in that …