The life and loves of a time-poor plantsman
Anyone who has spent time holidaying in Cornwall will know that the county’s weather can be relied upon to dictate your itinerary from start to finish. Rarely does a day start as it means to go on: ‘four seasons in one day’ is not so much a concept as a way of life on the […]
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Dan, in a moment of madness, has decided that he would like me to contribute now and again to his Frustrated Gardener blog. As I am also a keen gardener, I decided to accept his kind offer, and so here I am. For me, gardening has always been a pleasure and a joy, unless my […]
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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 to Tim Smit, later of Eden Project fame, there was already an audacious plan to revive them. As the decade […]
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From a very early age my parents took me and my sister to visit gardens. I like to think the reason was to cultivate our interest in flowers and plants, but as one follower of this blog commented recently (with reference to another Cornish garden, Trebah), it was probably to keep us both from wreaking havoc […]
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There comes a point every year when I begin to lose sight of our London garden. It’s nothing to do with my failing vision (although I do like to sport a natty pair of specs), or exuberant foliage, but everything to do with the shortening day-length. Come October there may be a few precious moments […]
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On the steep sides of the Helford River in Cornwall lie two famous gardens, as similar in style as the two halves of a 1920’s semi. The likeness is not so surprising when you discover that both were influenced by the same family at a crucial point in their development. The Foxes, a large, wealthy quaker dynasty, created […]
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For a while in the nineties, when television programmes such as Home Front and Ground Force ruled the air waves, tree ferns almost became a gardening cliché. They were saved from turning into the plant equivalent of prawn cocktail by their relative expense; a good quality, legally harvested specimen will set you back around £40 per foot. When […]
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The British Isles are defined by the colour green. It should really be represented on our national flag, or at the least extolled by our national anthem. Perhaps if Scotland goes its own way the country can adopt green in place of the white-on-blue cross of St Andrew. If green was the national colour, our London garden might be deemed […]
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Every day something new is happening in the garden. I’ve promised myself a five minute scout around each morning before work, bringing me closer to the action. I can see nature starting to accelerate, fueled by every ray of sunshine and extra degree of warmth. Even the plants that are not quite off the starting […]
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The plants in our two gardens seem divided on the question of whether autumn has arrived or not. The majority are getting a bit too big for their boots, which will cost them dearly when the cold weather finally arrives. November’s weather has been wet and mild, which has really slowed the onset of any […]
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