Explaining a little about fertilisers; What N:P:K means; the benefits of Organic Matter, mulches & green manure – and making your own compost & manure brews. Some steps towards Organic Gardening

I had quite a few ideas about gardening that I believed wholeheartedly but quite without foundation - that is before I started my formal horticultural training. One of these truths was that there was no such thing as the over-use of fertilisers. A little more would surely provide extra benefit. Well, no, it turned out.…

Roses aside, back to Spring where the garden is colouring up with Camellias, Iris, Daphne and Anemone … and more of course

A gallery only - well I say 'only' - there is much to delight and much that is both beautiful and welcome in the garden. More and ever more colour to lift the spirits with so much more to come - and so I caution - take a pause, enjoy the season, these moments -…

A roundup of recent tweetery – snowdrops & camellias, hellebores of course

Galanthus Warburg Primrose (above) and Galanthus Bertram Anderson (below) Galanthus elwesii var elwesii Maidwell L (above) and Galanthus nivalis Magnet (below) Galanthus plicatus Colossus (above and below) 'Tis Snowdrop time, as with much else, early this year and so I thought I'd get myself into gear with a just a select selection. More, obviously, to…

In dappled woodland shade, much colour at Kew Gardens … a veritable rainbow of red, yellow, pink, blue, orange, purple (somewhere), green of course – and white … @kewgardens #SpringAtKew

Leucojum aestuvum in great drifts in the borders surrounding the Temple of Aeolus, the very cultivated woodland area at Kew Gardens. Hints of the expansive carpets of Scilla in the background. And so endeth my reports on this most recent visit to Kew Gardens, taking in the woodland around the Mount and the adjacent lake…

Camellias at Chiswick House, West London

Camellias at Chiswick House, West London. An extraordinary collection of camellias in the Duke of Devonshire's glasshouse at Chiswick House. Impressive just considering the flower power these plants exhibit and staggering considering their age, most dating to between 1830-1850.... many being the first plant introductions into the UK of their kind. Plan a trip soon.