Nothing quite finishes off the beds and borders as winter turns to spring as a good thick covering of well-rotted organic mulch – which sounds disgusting, but looks rather better…
Read moreDay 80: magnolia
Every garden, every street, should have a magnolia of some form or another. The various hybrids of Magnolia x soulangeana are the most commonly planted, and perhaps the small-tree’s most Insta-famous incarnation ever-since social media developed a love affair for this flamboyant symbol of spring’s arrival…
Read moreDay 79: wood squill
Only a few inches high, the blue of a single wood squill (Scilla siberica) is enough to stop you in your tracks – a carpet of them would challenge our native bluebells…
Read moreDay 78: poet’s daffodil
Poet’s narcissus, or Pheasant eye (Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus) is not your typical daff – although it has a strong claim to being the oldest…
Read moreDay 77: Hydrangea pruning
‘Off with their heads’. As if channelling the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, I find myself just now in the mood for a spot of decapitation, and I have the hydrangeas in mind…
Read moreDay 76: ground elder
The emerging leaves of this humble relative of the carrot are enough to strike fear into the heart of many a gardener. Ground elder, or goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) has a reputation as a tricky, invasive customer…
Read moreDay 75: daffodils
I have to ease myself in gently to daffodil season. I find many of them hard to love in spite of their unpretentious bonhomie, but I’m learning to appreciate an elongated trumpet here, a graceful, recurved petal there…
Read moreDay 74: rabbit attack
Gardeners and rabbits rarely coexist in harmony, and while there’s no denying their cuteness, they don’t half munch through your plants…
Read moreDay 73: paeony buds
All winter long I’ve been galumphing merrily across the borders, working from boards most of the time…
Read moreDay 72: wild primrose
There’s a lot of pizazz about the primula family…
Read moreDay 71: the mark of cane
In the borders, we’re enjoying the calm before the storm – old stems cut down, shabby leaves pulled away, all the remnants of last year’s garden carted off to the compost…
Read moreDay 70: lungwort
Pink, or blue. Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) can’t seem to make up its mind…
Read moreDay 69: ground ivy
The evergreen ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is beginning to flex its muscles in beds, borders and lawns…
Read moreDay 68: Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
For years I put up with an inferior euphorbia. Don’t ask me why. I’d meant to plant Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii …
Read moreDay 67: Begonia luxurians
Those who have a thing for plants will tell you, there are worse habits to have – it’s far easier on the pocket, for example, than a passion for vintage Porsches or posh handbags…
Read moreDay 66: nesting birds
Mrs Blackbird surveys my gardening activity from out of a dark, gold-rimmed eye…
Read moreDay 65: yew pollen
I happened to glance at my yew hedge the other day, only to see it surrounded by a golden haze, shifting in the breeze…
Read moreDay 64: lawn edging
There is nothing in the garden quite like edging, and edging a lawn in particular…
Read moreDay 63: purple-leaved plum
Everyone should all plant a cherry tree, for the joy of its flowers in spring, and its shade in the summer…
Read moreDay 62: perennial nettle
Forget the flowers – maybe the truest sign of spring’s arrival is that moment when the perennial nettles (Urtica dioica) begin to leaf up.
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