Winter thus far has consisted of a handful of slightly chilly nights with a lot of benign, mild, wet weather in between. The garden is bursting with signs of spring, some of which I have captured to illustrate this post. Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ is already…
Although the shortest day is firmly behind us, the bitter bulk of winter lies ahead. We’ve got off lightly here in Broadstairs. It has been wet and windy; cold at times, but not frosty, so far. My garden is small enough to be undemanding…
I am not a cold person, temperature or temperament wise, but when the wind blows from the north, as it did this weekend, I want to be indoors, with a jumper on and a fire blazing. A penetrating wind blew down from the Arctic on…
“It never rains, but it pours” is an English expression which means that when troubles come, they all come together. This week the phrase might have been applied literally to the deluge we experienced in East Kent. Dramatic thunder storms on Monday night were…
Day two of our garden opening is always a more relaxed affair and I am thoroughly looking forward to it. On day one the rain absented itself, but the wind did not. At times yesterday it gusted so hard that I got lost in…
The problem with crocuses is that no sun + strong winds = flattened blooms that never progress beyond promising buds. Hailing from central Europe and Mediterranean regions, crocuses are bulbs for open spaces with good drainage. Soggy, shady positions render them leggy and liable to…
Last night, as we lay in bed, it was almost as if a BBC special effects man was standing outside the bedroom window chucking buckets of water at the window. The sea roared, the wind howled and the freezing rain came down in sheets. By…
