Don’t get me wrong – I like to see a fluffy-tailed Tufty scampering about the grass as much as the next Event Gardener, but sometimes that’s not very much. In the summer the bunch in my garden seem to delight in smashing my favourite pots, uprooting box-cuttings and replacing tulip bulbs with monkey nuts. In…
Month: January 2017
Here be monsters..
Ever had one of those plants you forgot you even bought? This one was hiding in plain sight – a box ball, in an urn. I’d bought it when some people were coming round, plonked it in the urn for instant sophistication, had it roundly admired, then enjoyed it so much I forgot I’d never taken…
Jolly Good Biscuits!
The other day I picked up an old gardening magazine, My Garden, from 1947. It’s a curious little beast, about A4 size in today’s measurements and, given that Britain was still heavily rationed, an austere read in comparison to the glossies we read now. Mainly text, there are a few illustrations, some black and white photographs…
A Honey Hit of Sarcococca
My front garden’s going through a bit of an ugly duckling phase at the moment. Last year I took out a bunch of really ghastly, mildew-infested drudge-shrubs. They did not want to go. My muscles are still aching from the toughness of the roots. I replaced them with a row of yews, under-planted with tête-a-tête daffodils that…
The Kitchen Garden at Hampton Court
When ‘food’ is mentioned in the same sentence as ‘Hampton Court’ what generally springs to mind are Henry VIII’s massive Tudor kitchens, groaning with hogs heads, venison and enough pies to satisfy an army. An army that when not actually fighting potential invaders, spent much of its time playing at it, jousting in the tilt-yards…
Forcing Lily of the Valley
Such a harsh word. Pretty much any spring bulb grown indoors this time of year is ‘forced’ – hyacinths, crocuses, daffs – none of them really want to come out for Christmas, but they’ll show their faces, not too grudgingly, if they’re treated nicely. I first came across the idea of forcing Lily of the…
The Event Gardener 