Spades by Charles
A review of a Fiskars Spade by Charles Hawes One of the few “real” garden tasks that I undertake, is to occasionally divide my hostas. I say mine because although we have hostas in several places in the garden, the only ones I give any attention to are those in what...
Surprise!
Veddw has appeared on the shortlist of an award - for the Garden of the Year in the Countryfile magazine: You can vote here. Fat chance against Beth Chatto's - but great to be in there!
Anne at Hay Festival with Tim Richardson
This is a very short post. Or a long one if you click and listen. I couldn't resist giving you the chance to hear it, just having come across it. It's a recording of Tim Richardson interviewing me at Hay Festival when The Bad Tempered Gardener had just come out. Here...
Finished!
On to the final stages - Caitriona arrives. Here is a small sample of the work she did last time for us: So, work begins on this new project, from the bottom... and starts in red crayon - Then the carving begins..(tap tap tap tap...) Caitriona reaches the top and...
The Installation of The Stone.
Bet you could hardly wait for this. For too long we looked at The Stone in the car park and wondered if it would ever find its way anywhere else. I attempted to contact landscapers (just their kind of thing, you'd think, wouldn't you?) but no-one was even slightly...
The Stone. The first part.
I've spent a lot of time researching our predecessors at the Veddw, especially the squatters. They are the first actual inhabitants of our particular bit of land that we know about and were the builders of the turf and mud hut, which was followed by the cottage...
The Hampton Court Chop: stake out.
I hate staking plants. It looks ugly, especially early on in the year. And it's hard work (always best avoided). So I have one or two tricks to save me the bother. One is stuffing plants so tight together that they are self supporting. This works well, especially if...
A Sculpture Garden in the Wye Valley
Yesterday we managed to wangle ourselves a cream tea, with ginger cake, with some good friends of ours, Elsa and Adrian Wood, at the Nurtons - home to their daughter, Gemma Wood's Sculpture Garden. Come to visit this and Veddw too, all in a day. What more could you...
They didn’t ALL die!
Some of you kind people will remember my distress last year when my euphorbias, the biggest joy (well, maybe) of Veddw in May, started dying last summer. I thought I'd lost the lot. See here. Then come springa few began to reappear. And now some of them are back! And...
We Launch a Book!
Well, you get asked to write a book, you write it, it gets published and the next thing is - you have a book launch, right? So we did. We launched 'Outwitting Squirrels' on the river Wye at Symmonds Yat. We had to begin by making a boat to launch it in - this was...
Sorted?
In 2012 Rory Stuart published 'What Are Gardens For?' and in it he offered a critique of Veddw. Amongst other things (get the book..) he said: 'The avenue in the meadow should lead somewhere, perhaps through a gate or an arch into the shade of the Cotoneaster Walk'. I...
Painful truths about Camellias
It being the season, and garden writers needing to endlessly provide reading material, I recently read a piece in praise of camellias. Understandable - they are quite attractive flowers with a good shiny evergreen leaf. Hmm. And people go long distances to visit them...
August at Veddw
Someone, thinking of visiting, recently asked me what is in flower at Veddw in August. So, my apologies to all those of you who would like words here, and to all those who are spring focused and can't bear to imagine August right now: here are a selection of August...
Is winter interest interesting?
The term ‘interest’ in relation to gardens has irritated me for years. Partly because the use of the word seems totally wrong and I’ve found it hard to say why. I think it’s actually because interest (apart from when applied to money) implies thinking, or curiosity –...
How do we define ‘gardeners’? by Anne Wareham
What is a gardener?
Not all Glooom
Yes, I've been neglecting anyone who is kind enough to follow this blog. And right now I'm somewhat out of words, having been frantically book writing in every spare moment since June...words words words.. So, I'm cheating. Some pictures of Veddw in November. (though...
Voted one of the UK’s Top 100 Gardens by Garden News
Recent Posts From: thinkinGardens
Are Gardens just for Gardeners?
Do you visit art galleries and museums? Do you enjoy theatre and concerts? Hauser and Wirth – art gallery and Oudolf Gardens As a garden writer and garden maker I deeply regret that my audience for both appear to be almost exclusively gardeners. It is as if the works of painters and sculptors were only […]
Should thinkingardens migrate to Substack?
I think it’s possible that such platforms are the future. At least for as long as blogs were, once.
Otherworldly Gardens by Mary Keen
“The question to ask is, ‘what is here that is true, that is underneath the superficial things? What is here that matters?”
Autobiography of a Garden by Patterson Webster: a review
Autobiography of a Garden is about the garden making, Pat’s life, the history of the land, the ideas, the art, the plants and the devouring deer.
Garden regionally, get inspired globally by Marianne Willburn
But to dream, and perhaps more importantly, to innovate, we should inspire ourselves globally:
Chelsea or Chaumont? by Catharine Howard
“Have issue. You were so adamant that you wouldn’t go to Chelsea again. Discuss, please”.
Gifting the Ephemeral
. And now, knowing we won’t live forever, we’re thinking about what will happen to the house and garden when we die.
Hadspen aka The Newt in Somerset, by Anne Wareham
The garden is actually interestingly old fashioned. It’s not just the bedding but the relentless inclusion of every garden cliché, however brilliantly executed.
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