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Lost in translation
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Tall herb flora in Kyrgyzstan on a wet scree slope. Aconitum leuostomum mostly, to 2m tall.I just had the following letter from a student in canton Zürich, Switzerland. It...
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Piet Oudolf in Somerset
Just popped into Durslade Farm, just outside Bruton in Somerset, home of the new Hauser + Wirth gallery. The Guardian are talking about it as the "new Guggenheim". We shall see. Whatever artworks it...
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A flying visit to Chicago and the Lurie Garden
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Interesting being at the Lurie Garden in Chicago after such a viciously cold winter and seeing it all coming back to life, garden director Jennifer Davit tells me that...
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Land of the balsam-root, blue camas, and housing sprawl
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Balsamorhiza sagittata and an Eriophorum sp. on Rowena Bluffs, OR. Spending two weeks in the USA. Mostly in the Pacific North West. Between doing lectures and workshops I...
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On the attack - early summer weeding
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A day spent in the garden – weeding. Having been away for 2 weeks there is a lot to do at this time of year. This is the crucial period, to stop things seeding. It is also a...
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Weeding the Countryside?
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Spotted orchids en masse, I wish I understood how and why they spreadFollowing on from my last post about weeding the garden, specifically a very naturalistic planting...
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Telling the story of UK naturalistic planting to Japan
I was asked recently to write a piece summarising the recent history of naturalistic planting in Britain for the Royal Horticultural Society Japan journal. So I thought I should share the...
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The aliens might be coming
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Rhododendron x superponticum - beautifully strangling a lakeside at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.Whether it is kudzu vine strangling trees in Virginia, melaleuca throttling...
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Raised Beds - Trendy Nonsense in the Vegetable Garden?
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }“Why” asked the rather acerbic Dutchman I was talking to, “are so many British vegetable gardeners disabled?”. A bizarre thing to say, but I knew immediately what he was...
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August is a messy month
The view above is from our bedroom window, earlier in August. Much the same now except the day lilies have gone over. It seems to be characteristic of a lot of things which flower now to keep on...
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A trip to Prague
The castle of PruhoniceP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }I made a flying visit to Prague last week, to do a couple of lectures to a conference - Ūdržba trvalkovych záhonů – maintaining perennial beds, I...
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Sheffield - our planting R&D department
A corner of James Hitchmough's garden.P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Very interesting to spend the day in Sheffield recently, with a group from the Landscape Institute. I have a day with the North-East...
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Can't see the wilderness for the trees.
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }One of the things I love about the US, is the way that you can find places that give you a sense of what the continent was like without any human impact. Can't do this...
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Researching the plot
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } It looks like the goldenrod has taken over, but in fact this is only 16 plants, and they are only about 20-25cms across at the base. I took the photo a few weeks ago....
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Splendour of the Tree - the story behind the book
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }It was Andrea Jones, a photographer and friend, who I have worked with on a number of projects over the years, who suggested that I might like to join her in doing a book on...
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Grasses - update on facts and fears
Grrrrrasses... I am writing this basically for the MyGardenSchool students, for whom i wanted to clarify a point which I clearly had failed to do in the material, given how many ask about this - but...
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Україна - teaching and enthusiasm in Kiev
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }I was in Kiev, Ukraine, last week to teach a two day workshop on planting design. Such an amazingly enthusiastic group, as was my group in Moscow last year. There is an...
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Gardening - where have all the men gone?
First of all - Happy New Year!P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A recent piece in Gardens Illustrated, by the always interesting and perceptive Ambra Edwards, discussed the role of women in garden design,...
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Perennials - which is the best reference book?
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }Several people have been asking me recently about the best reference books on perennials. So here goes (until that is I've done my own!).Perennial garden plants, or, The...
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Confessions of a garden tour guide
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }The elderly American lady stood in the middle of the German park, tears streaming down her face. Initially alarmed, I soon realised they were tears of joy, “I was last here...
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