Unlike with our children, we are allowed to have favourite months. And whilst like everyone I love the fresh, green growth of spring and bright colours of summer, I must confess to having a soft spot for October. Through September, despite increasingly damp mornings and chilly evenings, we can cling to the idea that summer goes on although we are...
Certainly many roses have a great fragrance, but like Shakespeare I am not talking about roses specifically in this article, but about plant names and why they change. It can be very frustrating for gardeners, me included, when plant names change, apparently randomly, from those with which we are familiar to a new botanical name that always seems to be...
April marks a month of change in the garden. Longer days, rising temperatures and clear signs of vigorous growth coincide with the four day Easter weekend for many and draw even the barely-gardeners outside to exercise their green fingers. For keen growers, especially of vegetables, April brings a sigh of relief as they start to free greenhouse and windowsills of...
The first daffodils of early February may tempt us to think that spring is just around the corner and for many gardeners that means one thing: the start of the Vegetable growing season. But we all know that there is plenty of scope for wintry weather through February and March, and even here on the Kent-Sussex borders the last frost...
Firstly I would like to wish everyone a happy and successful 2025 as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century. I am not much one for new year resolutions but if I have a phrase that I would like to epitomise the coming 12 months it must be green value: the hope that individually and as a society...
One of the brightest spots of late autumn and winter gardening must surely be the potted Cyclamen that are on offer as winter bedding and Christmas presents. This blog post is all about Cyclamen because there is more than one species that we can grow in the UK and not all types suit all uses and spaces. Cyclamen are native to...
November is rarely the most encouraging time for gardening for the obvious reasons of shorter, colder, wetter days. Nonetheless it is important not to lose touch completely with the green elements of our lives. I would still encourage people to try and get some daylight every day, if possible in a green and pleasant space. It is the very fact...
October is a prime month for planting and if you visit a nursery or garden centre you will see, alongside plants in pots, a range of dry bulbs for autumn planting. Much of this will be a dazzling variety of daffodils and tulips. I will say a little bit about those first and then mention some other perhaps less well...
July must be peak fruit eating month with so much summer fruit ripening: strawberries, raspberries, cherries, followed by all the bush fruit. How much better fruit tastes when it has come straight from the garden and not been refrigerated. I read somewhere that the chemicals in strawberries and tomatoes that make them red also produce some of the flavour and...
I find April the most uplifting month in the garden because plants are all growing at full throttle. It may seem that there is an endless list of gardening tasks to do, but as we get into this month it is worth making time to undertake some propagation. There is great joy in getting new plants for nothing and being...
