It was not my intention to write about the contentous subject of peat in gardening but a friend of mine sent me an article from the New York Times on the subject, which deserves wider distribution. So, maybe I should take the plunge. There was a time when, in the UK, we all used lots[...]
Noel Kingsbury
Autumn – our most colourful time?
I remember on my first ever trip to the US (in August/September 1992) loving the blue/violet and yellow colour scheme of roadside wildflowers, whilst driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, and then seeing similar mixes all the way up to Massachusetts. There must be a good reason why so many autumn perennials flower in[...]
A new look at the potager – Cambo innovates again
The potager – that ornamental version of the vegetable garden was always a bit precious. Too many people had visited Chateau Villandry on the Loire and thought they could do a mini-version. The results were all too often a neurotic assemblage of over-controlled vegetables that no-one dare harvest as it would spoil the picture.
Garden in the Woods
Last week I spent a day doing some filming with Duncan Heather and Elspeth Briscoe for a MyGardenSchool online course on perennials I will be tutoring next year. Duncan is principal of the Oxford College of Garden Design and a noted garden designer. So, interesting to have a look around at a leading garden designer’s[...]
First open the garden, then pour the tea
Opened our garden on Sunday, for the National Garden Scheme, which for those of you who don’t know it, raises money for charities through encouraging private gardens to open to the public. They have been running since 1927, and now have thousands of gardens in the famous Yellow Book guide. Its not the[...]