We’re under starters orders and still pondering over what the weather is going to throw next. Is it possible, that I am already scribbling notes for the February gardener? January has been weird, in the main cold and very wet. It is amazing how in just a few months we have gone from scorched toRead More

Each month’s musings begin as the last, a confounded outpouring as once again the shape of seasons is disrupted. Once upon a time, we would catch a couple of big frosts at the end of September and would set about repairing and replanting, removing bedding plants that had performed all summer long. Today those beddingRead More

Where do the days go? This topsy turvy month has just flown away. Rain teased and brushed the ground, leaves quietly tumbled surrendering to drought and imminent autumn. It has been a strange summer, with many plants just not realising their potential. I have dahlias that have dithered about flowering and some things that justRead More

Well, things warmed up a tad in July didn’t they? We deliberated on the ethics of pouring water onto the garden, we bucketed the bathwater and dropped house bricks in toilet cisterns to reduce the flush, but despite our best-efforts things crisped and many things ran swiftly to seed. Onions were very quick to bolt,Read More

Another curious month. May just rolled in and out again. Nothing particularly dramatic to flag up the crossing from spring to summer. As gardeners we see May as the turning point, the demarcation that allows a confident march into safer times for planting. Through the earlier days we watch over our shoulders for treacherous turnsRead More