A gardener’s tools: the dissecting kit

I’m delighted to welcome Kew’s Miranda Janatka for the first post in a series on A gardener’s tools, in which different gardeners will be writing about the tools which they find invaluable in their labours, as they tend gardens and nurture plants. Having seen a photography of Miranda’s dissecting kit on her Instagram feed, I had to ask her if she’d be happy to go into the background behind the collection and, fortunately for us, she said yes.

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Rabbit damage

Undoubtedly cute in the right place, but a magnificent pain in the backside in the garden – furry critters have been wreaking havoc again. This time the rabbit damage was limited to a fig tree, but its survival is still very much in the balance.

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#thatwinterspringthing hashtag project

To the uninitiated, hashtags are probably the most confounding aspect to social media. But a little delving reveals them to be a powerful tool for cutting through the online flotsam and plucking related content out from the relentless flow of global chatter. As winter turns to spring, I’m launching a hashtag to encourage Instagram users to share their seasonal images.

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Head Gardeners

Published last September, it seems criminal that it's taken me so long to get around to read this exploration of fourteen head gardeners, written by Ambra Edwards with photographs by Charlie Hopkinson. But the moment I heard about it, I was hooked, and wanted to savour the reading of it in the quiet days between Christmas and New Year. Well, it took me a little longer, but read on to find out what I thought of the book.

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Resolution

In which I resolve not to make any news years resolutions. And realize that, without intending to, I’ve been making them all along.

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November & December in the garden

It’s new year’s eve, but I’ll leave the annual gardening retrospective for others. For me, that doesn’t feel right till winter’s done and sowing seeds can begin in earnest, and we’re not quite there yet, although the seed catalogues are beginning to look well-thumbed. But I’ve not yet had a chance to look back through November and December in the garden as seen through my Instagram feed, so I hope you’ll join me as I review the past couple of months.

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A day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words

Making the most of Betwixtmas with some garden reading. What additions to your gardening bookshelves did Christmas bring? 

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The unquestionable hipness of houseplants

Houseplants are fashionable again. Which only begs the question, how does something as sensible as filling your home with inexpensively beautiful, living, breathing organisms, go out of fashion in the first place? But no time for pondering – first, I need to work out how NOT to kill them.

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October in the garden

October has been mild and mainly dry in Kent, many trees still in leaf at the end of the month and no sign of a frost with sufficient bite to blacken the stems of the dahlias, which have flowered right through. There’s even some colour left in the borders, with salvias performing particularly well, and annuals like cosmos continuing to bloom with gusto. How long can it last?

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The Almanac

My in-tray is wobbling at me dangerously. I have an article to write, invoices to send and a small pile of books to review. But I’m so excited about this one that it’s jumping the queue.  Lia Leendertz’s much anticipated Almanac has arrived, and I’m delighted to have got my hands on a copy.

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August & September in the garden

By now, Autumn has well and truly got its feet under the table. With characteristic tardiness, I’m taking a look back at the past couple of months – the height of summer recently departed, as portrayed on my Instagram grid. Here’s my pick of the best images.

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A day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words

A brief dip into the journal of a garden blogger. First to Wisley with awfully nice people from garden tool manufacturers Stihl, then the Autumn Plant Fair at Great Dixter. Maybe even a spot of gardening at home.

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The dying of the light

Have you ever loved something with great intensity, whilst all the while wishing you could change just one thing about it? Of course you have. That’s how I am with Autumn. I have a strong emotional connection to this time of year, from the earliest signs of its approach with those first morning mists at the end of August, which send a shudder of relief through my whole frame. But barely at the mid point of September, and it’s already dark before eight, getting earlier each day. I could do without that.

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Secret Gardens of East Anglia

This could so easily have been one of those coffee table books to be flicked through absent mindedly, gazing at gorgeous photography while skimming over the text. But it’s much more than that. Secret Gardens of East Anglia – a private tour of 22 gardens is published by Frances Lincoln on 7 September 2017, priced £20. 

 

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A day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words

To The Walled Nursery in Hawkhurst on a baking Sunday afternoon. Someone forgot to send the weather the memo that this is England, and it’s supposed to be chucking it down every August bank holiday weekend. People caught up with, and plants bought. 

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EGO Power+ HT5100E battery powered hedge trimmer

My hedgecutter of choice is petrol powered – efficient and reliable, but also a cumbersome gas guzzler. Over the last few weeks, instead of this tried and trusted machine, I threw myself in at the deep end and took a battery powered alternative. Read on to discover how I got on.

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A day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words

A week's getaway in a tiny cottage on the very doorstep of my favourite garden. Could hardly be better!

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A day in the life of... Gardens, Weeds & Words

Rain stops play. Caught in a pincer movement between  an unusually gloomy, wet summer and waterproofs that aren't. Highly annoying.

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June & July in the garden

The year is flying. We’re already weeks past midsummer, the days are beginning to draw in and early morning mists have arrived. June whisked by so fleetingly, Hampton Court was upon me before I knew it and I didn’t have time for a review of that month, so I hope you’ll excuse a double shot in this post. And before you ask, no, my yoga practice is still non-existent. Though I have been leant a kettlebell, which so far I have carried from the car to the front room. That should do it.

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