Is it worth removing these flowers?
Just how important is detail in the garden - or, at what point does it begin to matter?? The planting in the front garden at Veddw at this time of year has quite bold patches of telling foliage and flower. The effect is kind of clean.. But then the variegated ground...
Propagating without trying
In the conservatory at Veddw we have a display of succulents, which we love and other people seem to, too. Makes for visitor entertainment when they are sheltering from the pouring rain. Personally, I like them better when they're not flowering. Anne's picture....
Good things
After writing about destruction, time to write about some mending. Some people will remember the removal of the box balls from the front garden. Now Jeff has made created a new front garden for us (ish - the plants are all the same..) This was no small task, as the...
Death and snow damage.
Veddw may not be an over gardened zone, but it does make demands. Last year three full grown trees - cotoneasters - died and had to be removed. A huge job and many thanks to Jeff for doing all that work. That disaster was then followed by heavy snow - about 10 or 12...
What Are Gardens For? plus shameless self promotion..
I'm sorry to begin another post with a disagreement with a much respected colleague, (see also) but here I go again. And it is also one of the joys of blogging that I can. Once we had to struggle to get a voice, now we can take one... I was just reading the RHS...
Weeding
I did some hand weeding the other day. I know. I know. First time since never.... All the better to learn something then. And I did - see if you agree. It was the creeping buttercup curse. I used to think I would never get on top of this. I have had colour schemes in...
Everything In The Garden Is Lovely by Alasdair Aston
Sometimes I get really fed up of 'lovely gardens' and all the other lovelies...and then I remember this poem... Everything In The Garden Is Lovely by Alasdair Aston Even the fat slug That drags its belly nightly Over dank paving And into the heart of the lettuce Is...
Taking the pictures….
I love it when Charles works on Veddw: his pictures are so much better than mine. It's like keeping the garden, saving its best bits: he only does best bits. Professional photographers aren't interested in the bits that don't work. They don't sell. Hence the deluded...
The Great Slug Scare
Monty Don started it apparently, suggesting everyone hunts around, under and in their pots and seed trays to find slugs. Yuk. And then, presumably, squish them..I didn't see it. The thrills I miss. But I didn't miss an article online telling us the slug is back. That...
Drought or Drown – what not to plant?
Noel Kingsbury has just published a piece in the Telegraph online, wonderfully identified in the link as 'Middle Column Puff' , about rainier gardening. It's about gardening in the New Wet and follows his previous, recent piece about how we still need to save water...
What NOT to do in your garden in April
They tell you : The arrival of spring can mean fast growth. Love this, as I see daffodils shivering in the east wind and refusing to open…. In sunny weather, temperatures can rise sharply in greenhouses and cold frames. To prevent damage to seedlings, make sure your...
What NOT to do in your garden this week, in the snow.
Mow the lawn ( yes...) Mow your lawn now and you'll enjoy a greener, denser and harder-wearing patch throughout the summer. Whether you want a bowling-green lawn or just a bit of grass for the kids to play on, regular mowing will improve the appearance of your lawn...
Why do I like a mixed vase of tulips?
I hate the look of a mixed hanging basket or jumble of annuals, even a jumble of tulips.. So why did I buy a mixed bunch of tulips? I'm not sure. Maybe the colours just work together? Or at least better than the Bodnant ones? Bright yellow and pale...
What NOT to do in your garden in March
Start chitting tubers of seed potatoes. Have you ever tried to stop a potato sprouting? (ie chitting) If anyone can tell me how to stop them I’d be very grateful. You do not, it seems to me, need to lay them carefully in single layers in trays in a cool light frost...
Institutional Gardens – are they all awful?
Postscript to this piece We just revisited Plas Brondanw (May 2014) and found it transformed. The changes have been sorted and the renovations as successful now as they could be. Wish they would lose the labels and the inappropriate roses but otherwise it's now a...
A Very Bad Day
It’s snowing and I’m feeling heartbroken. And Jeff, our gardener,( he comes one day a week and is indispensable - see sidebar.) is out there, in the snow, working so hard. Digging up the box balls in our front garden. What to say? We’ve been putting off this dreadful...
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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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