Today is, apparently, the ‘last day of winter’. If this is true, then it has come not a moment too soon – I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that I’ve had it up to here with winter. Particularly this winter, with its over-abundant rainfall, endlessly overcast skies and bone-biting arctic winds. But just when…
DetailsAlthough my allotment is currently both snowbound and flooded, in a spirit of optimism, I placed my 2013 seed order this week. Growing from seed is meant to be one of the cheapest ways of growing plants in quantity but as I pressed ‘place order’ on the screen it didn’t quite feel that way. Somehow…
DetailsThey say no research is ever wasted and one of the many rewards of years spent researching successive editions of Museums & Galleries of London is that when I came to writing the London Garden Book A-Z, I already knew that it would feature several great museums that also have terrific gardens. Revisiting them with…
DetailsAt this time of year our shed has to double up as a wood store, so it’s more than usually cluttered with logs and random bits of wood gathered on walks adding to the usual assortment of gardening paraphernalia. I’ve just been fighting my way through the debris to collect some kindling for tonight’s fire…
DetailsI’ve been bowled over by the positive response to The London Garden Book A-Z – so far the book has been well-reviewed in Gardens Illustrated, the Evening Standard, the Telegraph, the Times and the Church Times, as well as gardening websites such as Woolly Green (http://woollygreen.com/) and Fennel & Fern (http://www.fennelandfern.co.uk/); the book was also a…
DetailsAlthough 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…
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