The painter Jean Cooke (1927-2008) was well ahead of the current trend for wild gardening when she listed ‘ungardening’ among her hobbies in Who’s Who. A new exhibition at The Garden Museum reveals how the artist – overshadowed for many years by her coercive husband and fellow painter John Bratby – found both inspiration and…
Although technically still winter, February is the month when you can really sense spring just around the corner. The snowdrop is the iconic plant that signals the beginning of the end of winter and getting out to see a snowdrop garden is a wonderful way to start the gardening year. Here are some of my…
Will the simple pleasures of gallery going, museum meandering and garden gandering be all the sweeter after months of lockdown? It seems highly likely, and with pre-booked time slots and carefully restricted visitor numbers, the experience of seeing an exhibition in the ‘new normal’ might arguably be even better with more space and time to…
It’s amazing what a difference three months can make in a garden. In March when we went into Covid lockdown and panic buying prompted food security jitters I decided now was the moment to convert part of our small back garden into a vegetable plot. Our allotment is rather too prone to animal predation…
Necessity is the mother of invention and in the midst of the current coronavirus lockdown horticultural businesses are having to adapt to survive. With public opening a no-no for the time being, garden gates around the country are closed and even Britain’s most venerable horticultural event, the Chelsea Flower Show, is heading online. With restrictions…
I was delighted to be invited to appear on Jennifer Jewell’s thought-provoking and wide-ranging ‘Cultivating Place’ podcast recently, which airs on North State Public Radio in California. It was an interesting experience – a bit like a gardener’s psychotherapy session, as Jennifer drilled down (albeit very gently) into my gardening journey, and the story behind…
The little wooden train that trundles over the Tramuntana mountains between Palma and Soller in Mallorca is one tourist excursion that is worth its ticket price. Now electrified, this narrow gauge railway line opened in 1912, and is no mean feat of engineering. The one hour journey takes passengers up 199 metres with an incline…
I’ve been really pleased with how the garden’s looked this summer but one week into July, it feels like the heatwave is beginning to take its toll in this patch of Somerset . Or is this just the usual midsummer slump, with the promise of more good things to come? Time for a midterm report.…
It’s a mistake to say that nothing of interest in the gardening world happens in January. By the end of the month the days are getting noticeably longer, the green shoots spring bulbs are already emerging and, in this neck of the woods at least, gardeners have Potato Day to look forward to. Last…
Popped down to the allotment today, for the first time in ages, this year even. As the picture below shows, it was a bleak scene. Last night’s snow/sleet had faded but the whole place gave the impression of hunkering down beneath a lowering January sky. The swathes of black weed surpressing plastic that so many…