The life and loves of a time-poor plantsman
It’s a little known fact – so little known that one might almost call it a secret – that the first job I ever applied for was with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. As a Landscape Architect I would be travelling the world, recommending how to look after these historically important sites. The main attraction […]
Read More
Spring is arriving in slow motion at The Watch House. I’ve been watching a single bud of Narcissus ‘Golden Ducat’ striving to open for ten days, willing it to reveal the acid-yellow petals tightly furled within. My clematis have been held in suspended animation since early February, their tender shoots primed and raring to go. […]
Read More
I’ve been out of town this weekend, enjoying the delights of Surrey’s innumerable hostelries in the company of my university friends. It’s the 19th year on the trot we’ve held a spring reunion. The occasion took place on Good Friday until we grew up and family commitments started to take precedence. Now we are […]
Read More
Tulips are a special passion of mine. They are inexpensive, easy to grow, endlessly colourful and, most importantly, good to look at. I am not the first to be enamoured of the tulip’s elegant, silken blooms and I certainly won’t be the last. Their appeal was first recognised by the Turks in about 1,000 AD […]
Read More
When I set out to post daily on the subject of daffodils, little did I know how distracting this week’s almost perfect gardening weather would be. The opportunity to spend two unbroken days outside rarely comes along and I have gardened from dawn to dusk. In the course of the last 48 hours, planting bulbs and rejuvenating […]
Read MoreI am used to grim weather on my birthday, but today’s meteorological maelstrom has been especially miserable. Yet out in the Atlantic on the Isles of Scilly delicate, highly-scented narcissi have been blooming since November. They begin with the multi-headed Tazettas, including these cheerful Narcissus ‘Soleil d’Or’ which I sent to my sister on the […]
Read More
On Saturday we a had a visitation from the Assistant County Organiser for the Kent National Gardens Scheme. So naturally, what could go wrong promptly went wrong. Eager to impress I was up at the crack of dawn to prepare for our inspection. The weather was a dream – sunny and breezy with the morning […]
Read More
The far south east corner of Kent is frequently overlooked, regarded by many as nothing more than the down-at-heel gateway to the delights of France and continental Europe. Yet behind the white cliffs of Dover lies rolling countryside dotted with sturdy Saxon churches, pretty weather-boarded villages and the romantically crumbling former defences of the realm. […]
Read More
The heady fragrance of hyacinths, immaculate Narcissus, incredible alpines and bustling biddies with notepads in hand, it can only be one event in the horticultural calendar – The Great London Plant Fair. Highlights in 2013 include the Alpine Garden Society competition and the early daffodil and hyacinth competitions. It may have been cold outside, but […]
Read More
Those of you who have been following The Frustrated Gardener for a while will recall that I wrote about Goodnestone Park shortly after starting out on my blogging adventure. Down here in East Kent there’s a shortage of good gardens to visit, so when we feel the need to get out, it’s often here that […]
Read More