This month I am starting to think about how my garden coped with this summer’s weather, beginning with the flower garden. I shall start with hydrangeas as in July I had proudly shown you the Hydrangea arborescens ‘Strong Annabelle’ in their pots sat in trays up by the house looking…

My aim with the planting plan for the Long Border was that the border would peak in interest in September. You may recall it was knitting together better than I expected in its first August after planting, so this month, let us go for a walk round the border in…

I ended last month by asking what July would bring us weatherwise – and as we all know it was the hottest July for 190 years, and we here had NO rain at all, as well as almost continuously above heatwave-threshold temperatures. So, I shall ignore the miserable gardening conditions…

Ignoring the extreme weather we have had in June for a moment, picking up from where I left the planted up long border last month I shall show you how the planting grew and developed over the next few months of 2021. Let’s start with three photos from the beginning…

Before returning to the plant list for my new Long Border, I have to mention May’s challenging weather for gardening. I struggled in the first 20 days in May as the night temperatures fell to close to freezing, or frost-levels each night, so plants grown from seed could not be…

What a difference the longer days make to the feel of the weather in April. We had easterly or northerly wind direction most of the time, and much of that was at least 25mph, and sometimes up to 35 0r 40mph, so the temperatures were depressed, and the cuckoo didn’t…

As this month is going to concentrate on the preparation and start of the build of the long border here on my Chalk Hillside, I shall start with some photos from a lovely arboretum visit on 14 March. For once this year it was a lovely sunny day and we…

Let’s hope March is not as wet as January and February have been, and that the light levels each day are better. The flooding in the valley below us in February was as extensive as I have ever seen it, and being groundwater flooding will take a long time to…

In an inclement and dark winter month it’s a delight to look at the colourful photos I have taken over the years of “Long Borders;” all visited in the brighter light of summer or early autumn as the light levels here currently are very low indeed. Here are a few.…

Happy New Year! Let’s start with some plants in my garden on 30 December 2025. Unexpectedly, Berberis Darwinii flowering: – Daisies (Bellis perennis) in the back garden: – Mexican Fleabane, (Erigeron karvinskianus), in the front garden: – Even Greater periwinkle (Vinca major): – The Nandina Domestical ‘Obsession’ still had its…

This month, some wonderful late Autumn flowering salvias in the garden, and my look back at our veg production this year. The tomatoes went into the polytunnel last week of May: – Unlike last year, this was a good tomato year – they loved the warmth and the sunshine, and…

This month I shall concentrate on our fruit production and harvest this year. Looking back over the year I have to mention the big impact the weather had on it. This year, unlike the past two years in particular, we had a dry warm spring so the fruit tree blossom…

Continuing my look at plants that self-seed here, I will start with some biennials. As I mentioned last month, Vipers Bugloss does very well here, and its leaf floret in the first year looks rather like Digitalis, which do not really seed themselves around regularly here, just popping up now…

In this article I am going to show you plants that were here when we moved in, or that I have deliberately planted here that have subsequently self-seeded around. I wonder whether the plants that self-seed themselves around my garden are particular to my chalk hillside environment, or are pioneer…

Following on from the idea of annual seed mixes of meadow plants discussed last time, this month I am considering perennial seed mixes for meadow planting – something I was unaware of until this past winter when I was reading old garden magazines. I suspect as hardy planters you already…

Sowing Meadow-style planting without grass really widens your options. This month I am going to talk about my experience of sowing annual meadow mixes, and next month major on perennial meadows from seed. Many seed companies sell seed mixes by weight of e.g., cornfield plants; bee-friendly plants; butterfly-friendly plants. Often…

That “meadow” look. How easy is it to achieve or maintain? This month and next I shall think about intentionally creating a meadow in the garden. Obviously the first questions to ask are how big an area will it cover; is it in full sun/shade; do I want to be…

As we are being bombarded in the media by no-mow-May exhortations in support of the Plantlife Charity’s initiative, this month I shall be thinking about Wildflower Meadows.  I know in our recent Journal there was an article bemoaning this initiative for being too temporary a habitat in our gardens for…

I will start with a photo of the late-flowering snowdrop Galanthus ‘Polar Bear’ I bought at East Lambrook Manor at the beginning of February – you may remember last month I said that by the beginning of March it was still just a “snout.”  By 19 March it looked like…

I do hope you have managed to find good enough weather to visit a snowdrop garden near you this past month.  As I said last month, we planned to visit several, and were lucky with the weather on a couple that are infrequently open, and able to plan to go…

This month the effects of Storm Bert and Storm Darragh on our garden, and some winter colour.  Storm Bert at the beginning of December came from the south – not a direction we normally get our 65+mph winds, and it caused not only the fence to go over – which…

Happy New Year.   Now for more vegetable and fruit updates, and more autumn colour. Continuing my look at our fruit and vegetable growing in 2024, I’ll start with tomatoes.  I mentioned in November’s article that the tomatoes grew long and spindly before they were potted into their final pots in…

This month, some November autumn colour, and part one of reviewing our vegetable and fruit growing year.  Starting with some of our vegetables.  Overall this year harvests on most crops were down on usual, more a reflection of the weather and concomitant pests and diseases than lack of effort on…

How have you found using peat-free compost?  This article is about my experiences with it.  Although I am going to keep positive, I do have to confess that my experiences are at the least “mixed”.   Let’s start with some late October stunners from the garden:- Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’:- Liatris spicata:-…