This spurred me on to try something I had been intending to do – ask Chat GPT to write something in my writing style on a topic in which I have some expertise. It took maybe 20 seconds to come up with its reply ..read more

What is being referred to as rewilding or restorative gardening in Britain is what we describe as naturalistic gardening, sometimes veering into wild gardening. Same principles, different words ..read more

Facebook showed me a post by Gardens Illustrated on one of our most favourite gardens, Wildside and I read the comments. “Lovely series but it would be nice to see some 'normal' gardens”. Reader, what is a ‘normal garden’?.... I suspect a ‘normal garden’ equals ‘a garden like mine’ to that Facebook commenter ..read more

It may still feel like high summer where we are, but the flowers do not lie. We are on the cusp of autumn ..read more

It is not that we prune all our camellias by any manner of means and we do clip, shape, restrict or clean up in many different styles, depending on the role each plant plays in the garden ..read more

When we saw advance publicity on Monty Don’s new ‘British Gardens’ TV series, we wondered how long we would have to wait to see it here. We are old, you see, so it took our younger gardener Zach to alert us to the fact that it is readily available online. We watched it on You Tube (just go to their home page and type in Monty Don) but it is probably available on other streaming services too ..read more

Every year I photograph our swathe of Scadoxus katherinae, more accurately Scadoxus multiflorus ssp katherinae. It is a remarkable display, especially to those who know plants and those who have one treasured plant that they nurse along in a pot. Mark told me the story behind it this week. His father, Felix, had a few ..read more

I made that term up. It is when I spend a fair amount of time working through an area, removing a large amount of plant material and at the end of it, most people wouldn’t even see the difference because it all looks pretty much the same. Just a bit tidier ..read more

Family tradition decrees that said Christmas tree can not be a) purchased or b) a fake tinsel affair. It must be harvested or repurposed from home. This has led to considerable variation in size and type down the years ..read more

Following on from yesterday’s post considering sustainability in gardens, a new book out of the UK take the issues of sustainability and reducing negative environmental impacts to a far more wholistic view ..read more