Making Veddw 7: The Veg Plot In its lost glory
Now, at some point we visited Barnsley House, Rosemary Verey’s garden. Charles was much taken with the potager. Which is a fancy name for a veg garden made on very formal lines and designed to be attractive as well as functional. The paths at Barnsley House were far too narrow, so that you sort of tiptoed around, but we got the idea.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Making Veddw Garden – a Love Story: part 1.
And out of what felt to be the ruins of my life, I turned to an ambition to make another garden.
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...
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Winter plants flattering the town: a short break in Chipping Campden.
But what does Chipping Campden have to offer gardeners in the middle of winter, besides cream teas and toasted teacakes? Well, it has Plants in Doorways for a start,
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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