34 Cross Road, Walmer: A Garden For All Senses
Reading time 9 minutes
Living and gardening by the coast, I find my senses become attuned to a very specific set of sensations: the sound of seagulls, restless […]
tulips
The Late Late April Show
Reading time 7 minutes
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 […]
Last Hurrah
Reading time 10 minutes
Slowly but surely the petals are falling from my tulips, one by one, leaving skinny seed pods where yesterday hovered fat balloons of […]
My Perfect Ten Tulips
Reading time 11 minutes
In spite of late planting and a cold April, it has been an exceptional year for tulips at The Watch House. They have […]
Drama Queens II: Tulip ‘Orange Dynasty’
Reading time 4 minutes
Choosing tulips from a catalogue is rather like deciding which confections to buy from a sweet shop. Each variety has something to tempt […]
Drama Queens I: Tulipa ‘Slawa’
Reading time 4 minutes
Ladies and gentlemen, for my 800th post, may I present you with the first of two floral drama queens; a bold, brassy diva […]
A week is a long time in gardening
Reading time 4 minutes
It was British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who first said ‘a week is a long time in politics’. Almost sixty years later, his […]
Great Dixter: Pots of Plenty
Reading time 11 minutes
The recent chilly weather has had its pros and cons. The downside for eager gardeners who have been nurturing seedlings and planting out […]
The Great Dixter Dozen
Reading time 3 minutes
It’s rare that I sacrifice commentary for imagery, but as I look back over the photographs I took at Great Dixter last weekend, […]
Spring at The Salutation
Reading time 9 minutes
If I were to win the lottery, The Salutation is the house I’d want to live in. I’d spend every spring and summer […]
Waste not, want not
Reading time 6 minutes
I don’t have many dislikes. Of those I do, chief among them is waste. Rather ambitiously, one might say naively, I spent £300 […]
An Olympian Task
Reading time 6 minutes
As my plane to New York taxied down the runway this morning, I received a message alerting me to a missed call from […]