Gardening: A VISIT to the Royal
Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley, on the first warm day of
2013, did, I am afraid, reinforce a gardening stereotype.
Silver-haired ladies of a certain age abounded.
Gardening: I had forgotten the mixture of
excitement and exhaustion that goes with having a young dog in the
house. When Marnie's schedule of dashing, chewing, and relieving
herself in inappropriate places had ceased, and she lay amid the
jumble, I found myself visiting the spot where our previous dog,
Oscar, was buried in the garden.
Gardening: I HAVE been enjoying the snowdrops
in my Staffordshire garden for a few weeks, and now the first
crocus is emerging. Both have an inherent delicate beauty that is
worthy of close observation, and is at odds with the cruel February
weather.
Gardening: Most people would see the
futility of planting out their summer bedding three months
prematurely, and yet Easter eggs have been selling since the
beginning of this month. The secular world seems to trip over
itself in a bid to bring it all on, sooner and sooner. The garden
slows us down. Looking out over the skeleton of last summer amid
fog and frost, I am not called to action, and that is as it should
be.
Gardening: THE sight of a bowl of mixed nuts in
their shells takes me back to family Christmases in the '70s. It
was the only time of year my mother would buy nuts, and, along with
the decorations, out would come a wicker basket and a pair of heavy
hinged nutcrackers.
Jamie Cable discusses shoes, gloves, and gifts
for gardeners.
Gardening: THE poet Alfred Noyes gives a
splendid account of his beloved garden on the Isle of Wight in The
Incompleat Gardener, first published in 1955. I was drawn to where
he breaks into poetry to extol the virtues of a crab-apple
tree.
I CAME face to face with no fewer than six bishops at Fulham
Palace, in west London, recently. What a colourful display they
made. I am, of course, referring to the "Bishop Series" of dahlias
that has stemmed from the success of Dahlia "Bishop of
Llandaff".
Jamie Cable: This month, during a foray into
the countryside, it was an unexpected treat to come across a
two-acre lavender farm in the gently rolling landscape of north
Shropshire.
Jamie Cable: I WAS watching the wonderful
Channel 4 TV series All in the Best Possible Taste,
with Grayson Perry, and it struck me that a study of people's
gardens across the class spectrum would be intriguing.
ONE OF the satisfying aspects of being a gardener is the
opportunity for sharing that it creates. Plants beget plants,
whether by self-seeding or by the action of the gardener. I nurture
new plants because I can, rather than because I need them, and this
leads to surplus stock.