Although I spent nearly a decade as a denizen of North London, it wasn’t until I started to research The London Garden Book A-Z that I properly visited the Hill Garden and Pergola. And what a revelation it turned out to be. Quietly tucked away off North End Way the garden has the reputation of…
DetailsI don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for a walled garden and last week I discovered a cracker just down the road from where I live. The Walled Gardens of Cannington were officially opened in 2009 after a major redevelopment, but are built on a former monastic site that dates back to the…
DetailsAt last…drum roll please… The London Garden Book A-Z has finally arrived on these shores and is ready to hit the bookshops next week. With perfect timing, October’s Gardens Illustrated contains a very nice review of the book written by Tim Richardson, and with apologies for a little light trumpet blowing, here it is:
What’s not to love about wildflower meadows? A nostalgic sea of pretty pastels swaying in the wind, the soporific hum of bees ‘working the blooms’, wildflower meadows are the ultimate feel-good gardens. Researching the London Garden Book A-Z, I came across a few ultra urban ones…
DetailsI was hoping to see some pretty good tennis on the first day of the 126th Lawn Tennis Championship Meeting at Wimbledon but what I wasn’t expecting on this – my first visit to the Championships – was top notch plantsmanship as well. The courts…
DetailsThat is indeed the question for many gardeners – but at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show at least, exhibitors have answered in the affirmative. Topiary anchored the designs of two, gold-medal winning, show gardens ( Cleve West’s Brewin Dolphin garden and Arne Maynard’s Laurent-Perrier Bicentenary garden) and appeared in several others too. And perhaps…
DetailsWith only a few hours at my disposal my visit to this year’s CFS was necessarily a rather focused affair: it would have been impossible to see everything in less than half a day so for once I gave myself a break and didn’t even try. I ignored the shops…
DetailsThe Wallace Collection is one of my all-time favourite London museums, and so it was with some anticipation that I visited its refurbished Dutch Galleries on Monday. This suite of three top-lit 19th-century picture galleries re-opened in March but I’ve been so busy finishing the London Garden Book that this was my first chance to…
DetailsOn reflection, perhaps last week wasn’t the best time to have planted out my cosseted, greenhouse raised broad beans, although this photo does illustrate the virtues of raised beds rather neatly. Fingers crossed the waters will subside soon. Always prone to waterlogging, our allotment plot has on this occasion escaped relatively unscathed (there are others…
DetailsI finished my book yesterday (the London Garden Book A-Z) and it’s a mighty strange feeling. Having worked on it for over two years I was keen (increasingly so as successive seasons rolled past) to get the darn thing finished and off to press but as the end drew near, it was disconcerting to find…
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