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...
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.
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.
My favourite plant right now.
I still love these two flowers together though. Maybe proving (rightly) that I know nothing of colour in gardens and understand even less.
Gifting the Ephemeral.
Knowing we won’t live forever, (we have not had a nasty diagnosis) we’re thinking about what will happen to the house and garden when we die.
Weeds I Want
I am deciding which weeds I will choose to live with.
Words and Things in Gardens
’m not sure why I originally wanted to make a garden. I started with a need to grow things, which grew and grew until I needed to leave London to find more garden space in the country
Alison’s Visit to Veddw : Part Two
Here is the second part of Alison’s walk through the garden.
It’s still raining.
Alison’s Visit to Veddw, Part One.
I invited a friend to walk the garden and give her responses on the way. Alison agreed and recorded her visit.
To the Woods!
So after some rather futile years, losing as much as we planted, we made a radical decision: to keep the big old trees, which appear able to weather the wildlife.
Droning on…
Drone pictures are wonderfully versatile. They are not simply pictures from above but may give views of a garden from a variety of places.
A poem
In September friends of ours brought one of their tours to our garden. And one of their group, Vicki Scott, was, amazingly, inspired to write a poem about the garden. And here it is!
Garden photography – a form of worship?
I get my camera out. I know photography has a bad press……
Veddw in The Garden, by Chris Young
This was published in the RHS ‘The Garden’ and written by the then editor, Chris Young, in December 2012. A long time ago. It’s a good piece and when I found it again recently I realised I wanted it here
Good things, especially Japanese Anemones
Here’s a celebration just of one flower, which is a total delight just now. Just for pleasure
How are the Disasters coming along?
Those of you kind enough to take an interest in Veddw Trials and Tribulations will no doubt have been having sleepless nights…
Jeff’s gone!
We finally wore him out. No more hedge cutting.
New post and a warning…
As you will have gathered by now, I am not a professional designer. Which means a great many things, one being that my plans often don’t seem to work.
Smothering
How often would a plant grow cheerfully through things we (you?) desperately remove? And do plants actually enjoy being crowded? Do they like the company of ground elder? How will we ever find out?
Ivy on House Walls.
Meanwhile I’m about to bore you with thoughts about growing ivy all over your house, just to avoid being controversial today.
Have eBooks at last become essential?
I recently decided to buy Tim Richardson’s book, Sissinghurst, The Dream Garden. (Excellent book) And I did something I’d been meaning to do for a long time – I bought the eBook…
With thanks to Carolyn Mullet
A big treat arrived for us today – Carolyn’s book, Adventures in Eden.
Gardens Need Critics by Anne Wareham for The Garden Design Journal
No art form can thrive without the serious discussion and dialogue which criticism offers: it raises standards, informs, educates and promotes intelligent debate. It is the very lifeblood of any high art.
Box Blight: what we’ve done.
We thought about it and it seemed possible……
Veddw in the Snow
I thought now it’s back to grey gloom you might like to see my pictures of Veddw in the snow from a few days ago.
One View through a Year
These are all views of the Crescent Border through the year from the same place
Octo arrives.
We needed a focal point…
Veddw on TV, long ago.
“The programme makers were confronted with a key question: what on earth was there about Veddw that might inspire anyone?”
A Real Hero, I think.
I know you are all fed up with hearing about Veddw disasters, but this blog serves as a diary as well as something (what on earth?) else. And this is a big thing for us. Today Charles, who finds eating bullets as hard as we all do, finally bit one of the many bullets...
33 years old!!!
33 years old! So how are we celebrating, you ask?
Cutting to the Bone
We decided we wouldn’t open this year. So why not really make a mess????
Bespoke visits to Veddw
So we are wondering about offering a bespoke visit for a maximum of two people.
Who is the garden for? Part 2.
But how could it be closer to the pleasure of wandering a garden with a friend?
Walking round your garden
Clearly we need to begin to discipline our approach to garden walking. And I think it may be possible.
What (else) could possibly go wrong?
I thought I would cheer some of those people up a little with some schadenfreude, and tell of the latest garden disasters.
Who is the Garden for?
I wonder how many gardeners are shocked by the idea of two acres focused simply on one plant?
Appreciating our weaknesses
Small sample of hedges cut properly….
Round the Back
Are we missing something, focusing on fronts?
Guided Tours?
Veddw on the Candide app.
One view a month.
I once took a picture of the same view from one of our windows every month for a year and I liked seeing the changes which in the flesh meld into each other. So I did it again with one of my favourite views outside.
Thugs you might like.
There is a scattering of delight in the garden just now, and has been for weeks. It’s a flower; a geranium:
Poor Bob is Dead
The Burial
One of top three in Wales
Just a quickie to say that we’re dead chuffed to have been voted one of the best three gardens in Wales
Weeds, some questions…
Gardeners very rarely really think about this, being more likely to recognise something simply as a bad plant, which must be got rid of.
We’re open on some Sundays!
We’re OPEN – on the 1st and third Sundays in July, August and September 2-5.
Pattern
Sometimes (not by any means always) the rigid balance of symmetry is a bit dead for me.
Our German week
What is biggest perhaps for me is that Gardens Illustrated turned this piece down
Globes!!!
They’re here!
Repairing the Veddw Seat
Rot and Repair: the story of spring…
Taking garden appreciation seriously
Then we were watching Monty Don in Japan last night. (he was in Japan, we were by the fire at home)
Hellebores: to leave, or no leaves?
Next question: do we like our hellebore flowers naked?
Help again…
Help needed…..
Poles?
So, we are currently looking at two rows of poles. And wondering whether to keep them…..
Good plants, Bad plants
There have been some winners and losers this summer in the plant population, and not much to do with the weather…
My Favourite Part of the Garden
I realised at some point that no-one else was going to be enjoying them. I took Charles to check. No. Not interesting.
Down with weeding: how living with weeds can make us better gardeners.
How many of us love the outdoor housework known as weeding? Is this why we turn eagerly to the gardening pages every week – to discover what boring chores we should be tackling? Unfortunately, for many garden housework haters like myself, our efforts, or lack of, may be on very public display (unlike the state of our bathrooms, for example). The gardens to which we are all exposed in magazines, RHS shows and on television don’t help.
Best garden in Monmouthshire? Hill House, Glascoed,
You’d expect one of my favourite gardens of anywhere to be a friend’s garden: partiality may be unavoidable. But my pleasure is based on more than that – this is just a truly good garden and it will be open, perhaps for the last time, in July this year.
And yes, Veddw is only half an hour away.
So, what’s so good? ….
May pictures
I know all you really really want are pictures to look at. So here, celebrating our opening on the 3rd of June (Sunday afternoons 2-5 -our last year!) are some Veddw pictures….
What’s the Problem with Railings?
What is the problem with railings, my good friends?? Please tell me.
Making Veddw Book?
“We’re wondering about doing a book, about Veddw, which will (if we can persuade a publisher) include some of the history of making it. We’re wondering if that would be interesting?”
Hellebores this time!
“Well, not everyone was giving the talk their full attention…”
Just plant pictures, January
Hellebores. Those are the stars of the show at this time of year for me, all of them, seedlings, well bred ones, all of them. Especially in pots indoors – no bending!
Catching up – or chopping down.
“Useful for breaking up those clods of earth that do not break down in the frost as promised by lying garden writers. Or bashing the soil off the rootball of something you’ve dug up and want to dispose of. That sort of thing…”
Playing with Plants
“We went off to the local Builder’s Merchant and ordered some scaffolding boards, and the internet provided us with some threaded rods and nuts.”
Reflections
“I love it when it’s faded a little and I add a refresher dose. Gradually a darker inky black spreads across the pool, reviving and restoring the drama all over again.
Thoughts on Opening a Garden and being Criticised.
We closed the garden this week, with great relief. It’s knackering opening it, but necessary since it helps pay for its development and maintenance. Sadly, someone had not enjoyed their visit – see above. This is on Google – if you google...
View from a Window
I gave myself a project of taking a picture every month from the same window. I thought it would be interesting for me to see the changes over a year all at once. Thought some of you might be interested too.. It’s a bit like that thing they used to have in the...
#mygardenrightnow
Great idea! Lots of gardeners posting pictures of their gardens (right now) and themselves (or bits of themselves) in them. Irresistible, even though the real photographer here told me the light is all wrong. So here goes: ...
New Conservatory
In January some men arrived and in less than a day demolished our conservatory and put it in a skip. It had been rotting and leaking, so it wasn’t totally dreadful to see it go, but the result looked like this. And the next few months were all...
Bird Bath the Fourth
Trouble! You’d expect it really – that if you have builders in creating chaos and disorder that you also develop major plumbing problems (nothing like discovering a pool of water in the bathroom in the middle of the night..), electrical problems, knee...
Autumn splendour
We rather meanly only open in the summer. But I obsessively take photographs of the garden all year round. I wrote about it in the Telegraph. You will look in vain for plant names – unless you send me them, in which case I will add them. So I thought I might as...
Sitting
We just had a short break at Dartington Hall. We had a great time, and not just because we went to see our good friends at Hill House Nursery (where amongst other good things, Charles had what he describes as the ‘best Victoria Sponge I have ever had’)....
Bindweed, yes or no?
I went to a lot of trouble earlier this year, sticking canes in for bindweed to grow up. I had an evil plan involving plastic bags and POISON! Then somehow there was a lot to do. Or it was raining. Or it looked like a lot of effort…. The bindweed stayed. And...
Do we expect too much from open gardens?
This piece was recently published in Gardener’s World Magazine. Love to know what you think about that question… If you wonder why we’re not doing our bit for the NGS here’s the answer: Shocked, but not surprised.
Non-Gardeners see the Beauty by Anne Wareham
Why do gardeners visit gardens?
Silent Spaces
For many years I’ve thought that gardens are wasted on gardeners. Not on all of us gardeners – but it is true that many gardeners visit gardens to look at plants (with a certain acquisitive eye…), have a chat with friends and family, nice day out.....
Superman at Veddw – cutting the Hornbeam Arch
There’s got to be a better way. Permanent scaffolding inside the arch? Or would getting an extension for the tower be enough?? Jeff’s comment? “A good work out and only one near death experience = result.” Relief all...
Being Difficult
We open normally every Sunday afternoon in June, July and August, and take visits in afternoons and evenings from parties of 10 or more from May to September, inclusive. So why, you may wonder, do we have a group visiting the garden today, in April? Well,...
Why our seats are pink
When I first had our seats made at Veddw I had to work out what colour to paint them. I tried lots of colours and found pink kind of worked – but I thought it was weird. Until I realised that the gravel, which is from a local quarry, is pink when wet. And when...
What to do with a Squirrel (without getting prosecuted) by Anne Wareham
This piece was published in the Spectator on the 21st March 2015 as the Spectator has a paywall, I have reproduced it here in case anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the Spectator might like to read it… What to do with a Squirrel (without getting...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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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