I had cause recently to look up how many years I spent writing weekly for newspapers. EIGHTEEN YEARS, first for Taranaki Daily News, then adding the Wanganui Chronicle and finally the Waikato Times.  You could knock me down with a feather. It is so long ago that I started by faxing my articles to the ..read more

The Chelsea chop is a time-honoured British gardening technique. Its name is related to the Chelsea Flower Show towards the end of May each year; that is the recommended time for gardeners to head out with their secateurs, snips or handy flax cutter in order to sever a third to half of the fresh season’s growth on various plants. Why this drastic action, you may ask ..read more

Two interactions this week brought me unexpected pleasure. The first was an email from Michael in Portland and I was so touched by his words I asked his permission to share it here. I post it without comment except to say that the ‘Dark Tulip’ Magnolia he refers to is of course our Magnolia ‘Black Tulip ..read more

Beth Chatto was planting on an old riverbed in an extremely low rainfall area and she wanted a garden that did not rely on any irrigation at all. Clearly this bears no relationship to our conditions. We never irrigate because we don’t have to and we never suffer from low rainfall. But it is the absence of garden edgings I want to draw attention to. Garden edgings are basically about containing the garden and giving definition. To do away with them altogether completely changes the look and makes it far more natural in appearance – albeit while not being natural at all ..read more

I found the range of different seedlings in the self-sown dwarf cosmos this year interesting and thought some readers may, too. Last year, we planted seedlings of Cosmos ‘Bright Lights Mix’ (from King’s Seeds) for late summer colour in the rockery. They performed well, stayed compact in growth and provided vibrant splashes of colour at ..read more

Here is a sight to strike terror in many gardeners. Those are gladiolus bulbs, in this case a yellow flowered hybrid. I knew it was a ‘vigorous’ grower, as the euphemism goes. I just didn’t realise quite how enthusiastic it was about increasing ..read more

My current conclusion, which I am more than happy to see corrected if I am wrong, is that if you buy Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstonne’ in this country, it is highly likely that is exactly what you will get. However, if you buy Ratibida pinnata you may well receive the Rudbeckia laciniata instead. Or you may receive what we doubt is the ratibida but looks mighty like a rudbeckia species that is closely related to R. laciniata, to our eyes. All we need is a botanist with specialist knowledge in American wildflowers to clear this up for us ..read more

Randomly, I read the print on the back of my tube of hand cream. There I found the following paragraph in very small font but full caps as shown below: “YOU HAVE ARRIVED IN THE FULL BLOOM OF SPRING, ON A PATH OF CAMELLIA, LOTUS AND AMBER, TO CHERRY BLOSSOMS, PINK AS PAINTED OVAL LIPS, TO THE ZEN TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION WHERE YOU FEEL CALMED, INSPIRED BY SIMPLICITY AND FOCUSED BY RESTRAINT TO SEE BEAUTY IN EVERYTHING.” Shall we unpack that a little ..read more

This is my new mantra. We have always had some level of self-seeding in the garden, some more desirable than others ..read more

When I find myself in times of trouble, it is not Mother Mary who comes to me as she apparently inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Rather, it is the garden that wraps around my day. Always, as I reach the reflective time at the end of the day, when Mark’s and my ritual is to sit together and have a drink (sometimes alcoholic and sometimes just homeopathic gins – lime and soda in a glass with just the memory of actual gin), I think how lucky I am in life to have washed up living in such a special environment.  ..read more