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 …

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 …

Open That Window!

Is it an unfortunate truth that the evolution of man to the top of nature's ladder is now the greatest threat to the world and all in it? There was a time - I imagine there must have been - when man was not the god of all he surveyed but simply another cog in …

There was a Sadness in the Air

There is something, I believe, in our human nature which seeks to protect us from the sadnesses of life, a part of our make-up which realises that we can't deal continuously with the vicissitudes and misfortunes that come our way. At times we put that aside and consider and ponder the sad realities we witness. …

As the Days Go By

This colchicum - Colchicum 'Pink Goblet' - is in my view from my usual seat in the house so that I notice how it changes day by day and, of course, this also means I am coaxed out to photograph it each time it catches my eye - perhaps, the sun catches it well or …

Just Because It’s Raining…

Yes, nothing really tells you it's autumn as clearly as a wet and dreary day. You are then left in no doubt that the weather has changed. There is that perfectly dull and miserable sky outside the window - well, what I can see of it through the rain running down the windowpane. The Head …