For passing wild life, a garden made in nature offers a welcoming stopover – and for the gardener, there is the joy of myriad encounters with the creatures that share our world. A gang of long-tailed tits has just swept through my garden on a tepid February breeze, lit up by milky, spring-is-around-the-corner sunshine. Darting […]

It’s cold in Cold Aston and my two lovely daughters do a wonderful Stella Gibbons act in the same sort of northern accent you get on the Hovis advert – where the young lad pushes the bike up Gold Hill in Shaftesbury in Dorset.  I have trouble propelling myself up that steep hill, let alone […]

Does a plant of Scarlet Pimpernel by your greenhouse door warn you of incoming bad weather? There was only one way to find out, by growing some and observing. In the trial Anagallis arvensis turned out such a pretty thing I grow a pot or two every year, hanging pots which suit the trailing habit, […]

It doesn’t matter how long you have been gardening there is always time to learn something new or change the way you do things. The greatest thing about gardening (for me anyway) is that there are a hundred and one ways to do the same thing. There may be lots of rules, but you learn […]

One of the exciting things that happens this month in my greenhouse is the blossoming of the nectarine. It always feels too early, blossoming while it feels so wintery out there, and is one of the first bits of blossom in my garden. It is a wonderful harbinger of spring. My ‘tree’ is actually a […]

We’re in the bleak midwinter in the village of Cold Aston, high in the Cotswolds. And yet, there’s solace in the garden despite the bitter easterly wind and the threat of snow lingering in the pink-tinged clouds. We do snow well in Cold Aston, it falls thick and deep. However, I already have one witch […]

As the climate crisis escalates, we need to garden smarter – and there’s no time to lose. AI could deliver the data to fast-track the right decisions for our natural world. We gardeners need help: heavyweight, ultra-intelligent help that can only come from the smartest – and getting smarter by the second – minds on […]

“Oh Bob, how could you?” said a friend spying this nestling amongst my edible, scented and useful greenhouse specimens. Coral Bead plant does catch the eye, and to all the world looks just as if it’s one of those market stall plant travesties sprayed with paint, glitter or bedaubed with plastic flowers, fruits or bugs. […]

As the winter solstice passes and the days begin to get slightly longer, the importance and the wonder of light becomes more and more apparent. Just as the moon controls the tide and other life rhythms the daylight length is tightly intertwined with growth, nature and the cycle of life. At Christmas or Yule we […]

The weather may be cold and grim and the days short and unpromising, but a great use for the greenhouse in these colder months is to use it to bring on some early spring flowers. They bring with them that whisper of warmer, lighter, more hopeful days to come, and even the act of planting […]