As well as the show gardens, I saw many other remarkable sights at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, not least, the great pavilion. It’s just a giant tent full of plants, but that description doesn’t do justice to the creative nature of the displays, and vast range of perfect plants being shown by growers from all over the world. I… Read more →
RHS Chelsea Flower Show: The Show Gardens
I’m back from my first ever visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and my mind has been well and truly blown! We went on Wednesday, a day reserved for RHS members (thanks Mum), so it wasn’t too crowded, and we could actually get close enough to properly look at the show gardens. It was a chilly, grey day, but… Read more →
May: What To Do Now
In my garden this month, the tulips have made way for the irises. Bearded iris flowers provide fat brushstrokes of colour that tower over the borders on tall stems. The smaller flowers of siberian and dutch irises are just as rich in colour, with contrasting throat markings and an intricate petal shape. They are exquisite. Aquilegia (also known as granny’s… Read more →
Open Garden & Plant Sale On Sunday 12th June
I’ve taken the plunge this year and decided to open my garden to raise money for charity. All gardeners love a nose around other people’s gardens, don’t we? It’s on Sunday 12th June, 11am to 4.30pm, at 20 Le Strange Close (just off Christchurch Road), Norwich NR2 3PW. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the weather will be fine. We’ll be selling… Read more →
Gardening In The Magic Kingdom
I’m not long back from a brilliant family holiday to Disneyland Paris. Prior to becoming a gardener, I wouldn’t have noticed the planting there. But now that I’m a gardener, I really look at trees and plants where ever I go. There are lots of artificial flowers and trees there, of course. But the real planting at Disneyland is surprisingly… Read more →
E is for Epimedium (or Horny Goat Weed) :: A to Z of Gardens
Bishop’s hat, barrenwort, fairy wings, rowdy lamb herb, randy beef grass, horny goat weed… These are all common names for epimedium. I can easily understand why epimedium might commonly be called fairy wings or bishop’s hat (or mitre) when you see the shape of the flowers. And bishop’s hat is an eminently suitable name, given that they tend to flower… Read more →
April: What To Do Now
For me early spring has been all about bold blues, yellows and acid greens. It’s a colour combination I love to see after the monochromes of winter. In our front garden, primroses and grape hyacinths (muscari) are self-seeding happily in one border (see photo above), while on the other side of the path, dog violets and a creeping sedum, whose… Read more →
How To Build A Bug Hotel
It was a gorgeous day today and there was nowhere I’d rather have been than in my garden. Well, truthfully, I’d rather have been relaxing on a beach lounger, listening to the lapping waves of the Indian Ocean, but that wasn’t an option. I sat in the sun and watched the bees that were busily collecting nectar from the pulmonaria… Read more →
Up The Garage Wall (Part 2)
Late last summer, I was puzzling over the problem of how to disguise or distract from the ugly garage wall the runs down the left hand side of our garden. I came up with a few ideas in this post, and received lots of helpful feedback and suggestions. In the end, I decided that the best solution would be to… Read more →
How To Make A Mini Frog Pond
I got a text from my mum yesterday informing me that her pond was full of wrestling frogs. I think I can safely assume that “wrestling” was my mum’s euphemism for “having sex”. It’s that time of year when all sorts of creatures are busy making babies. The blue tits in my garden are frantically nesting, male blackbirds are squabbling… Read more →