Making Veddw 6 The things which w̶e̶n̶t̶ we got wrong in the Meadow

But sometimes, you do feel as if the garden gods are maybe a bit on your side. We visited a garden sculpture exhibition and found it! Octo, by Stuart Stockwell.

Making Veddw: part 5. The Meadow.

Making Veddw: part 5. The Meadow.

It’s stressful, you know, this conservation thing. You feel judged all the time – hence the counting of orchids, which varies wildly from year to year. If there are lots, you feel very worthy and chuffed. If not – a witless wildlife failure. It is stressful and worrying and just don’t believe a word of all that ‘gardening is good for your mental health stuff.

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Making Veddw part 4: what did we do next?

Making Veddw part 4: what did we do next?

We got married Today: We have a wedding Homemade clothes Smelly sheep Piles and piles of wood Tipar (what is tipar??) Making paths Bird Baths and Pergolas Wedding! A fun filled occasion at Newport Register Office. We got the sheep back. It was one way to keep the...

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Making Veddw Garden: part 3. The Front Garden

Making Veddw Garden: part 3. The Front Garden

Then somehow, I do not know how, I discovered Ruth Stout. We had no internet, no Amazon, the local library was great but not so much for gardening. I used to trawl secondhand bookshops looking for affordable garden books and I must have found her book somewhere. She changed my life and made Veddw possible.

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Making Veddw Garden: part 2: we arrive.

Making Veddw Garden: part 2: we arrive.

. I really had no idea what you had in mind, either. I think if I had, I’d have been freaked out. I don’t actually think you ever said “one day all this will be a garden”. I’d have thought you deranged.

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Ambivalence about Snowdrops

Ambivalence about Snowdrops

Well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a happy Christmas. We were both full of cough and were quite unwell. I have not recovered, and I find myself quite unable to write anything new. So I dipped into The Bad Tempered Gardener to offer you a piece on those plants which...

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I’ve fallen in love with these.

I’ve fallen in love with these.

I love my garden, I do. It’s at the heart of my life. But just recently I’ve been drawn back and back to a windowsill with some sweet dwarf pelargoniums.

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Favour the Ferns

Favour the Ferns

Many years ago The Financial Times sent me to do a feature on the RHS ‘Flower Show’ at Tatton Park . I was totally naïve and had no idea what I was supposed to do or to write about. So my excitement was tempered by acute anxiety. The term ‘imposter syndrome’ could...

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Snowdrop mania is coming…

Snowdrop mania is coming…

In the UK, right now, the horticultural world is about to drive us all mad with snowdrops. Pictures of. Articles about. Gardens with them. Anything people can think of to bash us over the head with snowdrops.

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Brilliant Brecon

Brilliant Brecon

Recently we made a visit to Brecon. This is not far from us, in case anyone was getting over excited about the possibility that I might have been travelling again. It’s in Wales, in the Brecon Beacons, recently re-christened Bannau Brycheiniog.

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You should have been here Next Year

You should have been here Next Year

Charles made a complaint recently when we were walking in the garden.
When I complained about him complaining he told me that it was good for me to have complaints about the planting.

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Garden Seats – to make and sit on.

Garden Seats – to make and sit on.

I am discovering more and more often that it is important to have a great many seats in the garden. In fact there should probably be one every three feet or so.

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The Joy of Succulents

The Joy of Succulents

Well, it’s frosty outside and the sun is shining and you probably want me to write about snowdrops. There’s a lot of snowdrop waffle at this time of year, (I’ve done it myself) totally ignoring the freezing cold out there and the requirement to bend to see them. No, I...

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Messy with good bits

Messy with good bits

So, it’s good to be dogmatic and do the ‘put your garden to bed’ thing (, or equally, leave it all for the hoar frost (which never comes) – or the wee beasties who prefer it standing. (which are?)

But really, it’s rather more complicated.

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Box Blight: another hedge goes.

Box Blight: another hedge goes.

If you look carefully at this wonderfully out of focus photo you can see the blight. We have fought it for years. All over the garden. And we have been removing it from all over the garden. This year, after a drought, we got much pouring rain and the worst blight we had ever seen.

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