After a short break in the Ardennes last week for my birthday (snowy treks, a visit to a war museum, an unexpected detour to Luxembourg, but no parties, absolutely no parties, not even ‘work’ ones, not even the ones where you send someone out with a suitcase to get booze, not even one held during a national lockdown when nobody else is allowed a party! … Continue reading Six on Saturday: 15 Jan 2022: party time
Nipped out into the garden on Friday afternoon to take some photos, nearly froze my hands off, there was a very lively, bone-chilling easterly blowing. This could be the one that finally strips bare the Lime trees, adding the final valuable consignment to the leaf mould pile. The sky was wiped clean to reveal a raw, stunning blue. In keeping with this winter season of … Continue reading Six on Saturday: 05 Dec 2020
So, mid-October, there is a nip in the air, and the garden is dominated by the slow but steady leaf fall from our neighbours’ lime and hornbeam trees, which cover almost everything in about half of our back garden. Yes, they make a terrible mess and it’s a lot of work clearing them, so nowadays I have kind of given up on having a tidy … Continue reading My monthly Fab Five: October
August is over, September is upon us, and there’s a bit of a feeling in the garden, and maybe more generally too, that the party’s pretty much over. Things just look a bit tired, with many plants having given their best and others struggling on gamely but clearly not as fresh and vigorous as they were earlier. Well it happens to the best of us. … Continue reading Compensations of the season
How much chaos is tolerable in the garden, and to what extent should we strive for order and its accompanying neatness? I’ve been thinking about this recently as I wonder just how many exuberant nasturtiums and calendulas I should weed out of my veg plot. When romantic tumbling cottage garden charm becomes untidy, is it time to be ruthless? Ordered rows of veg and flowers … Continue reading Chaos theory in the garden
