Living and gardening by the coast, I find my senses become attuned to a very specific set of sensations: the sound of seagulls, restless wind and tourists dispossessed of their volume control; the smell of […]
Category: fragrance
RHS London Orchid Show & Plant Fair 2018
Orchids are extraordinary flowers. They display remarkable diversity in colour, size and form. Some are scented, some are designed to entrap insects and few, like vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), produce edible seed pods. Among the 28,000 […]
RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair 2018
One event in my calendar heralds the approach of spring like no other: the RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair. Throughout the first, frozen days of February I have been yearning for Westminster’s Horticultural Halls […]
Christmas at The Watch House
Motivated by the prospect of an OK-style, ‘At Home with Mr Christmas’ photoshoot this week, I have been decorating every corner of The Watch House in readiness for the festivities. This is the first year […]
Heligan Harvest
I first started visiting The Lost Gardens of Heligan as a student in the very early 1990s. By then the Tremayne family’s forgotten pleasure grounds had been rediscovered by their descendant, John Willis. Thanks […]
Eternal Eden
I can smell Cornwall before I can see it. Driving across the ancient border between Devon and Cornwall at night it’s pitch black, but I know that if I wind the car window down […]
In The Night Garden
When was the last time you ventured out into your garden after nightfall? Not at dusk, or to put the rubbish out, but to walk there when it’s properly dark? If it’s been a while, […]
