Helen

Gardening in my slippers – a cautionary tale

Two days ago, early in the morning I was carefully walking along the edge of the pond (precious primulas in full sail to my left, water to my right) in order to haul out some of the mass of oxygenating weed that was threatening to engulf the pump. I had just wandered outside, having completed the ‘weekly tips’ section ofContinue reading “Gardening in my slippers – a cautionary tale”

More seats, please

I am always surprised to find myself in small gardens with no chairs or seats apart from the obligatory dining ones by the house. You walk up them… and you walk back. And that’s it. Absolutely nowhere for quiet contemplation. Admittedly, my garden has an overabundance of seats, many of them elderly rustic chestnut things,Continue reading “More seats, please”

My garden is open for four hours…

…between 2 pm and 6 pm on Sunday June 5, as part of the Wadhurst Open Gardens 2011 weekend. Other lovely gardens of all shapes and sizes are open as well, of course, during both the Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Tickets cost £5 from Carillon Cottage (the parish office near the post office bang inContinue reading “My garden is open for four hours…”

“Did you know there was an old lady in a hairnet drowning in your pond?”

…was just one of various bemused comments from visitors about the orange mesh bag – actually full of barley straw – currently breezing around on the surface of my pond as part of my battle against blanket weed and green water. Wiggly Wigglers (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) sell bags of straw in trios (they are on special offer asContinue reading ““Did you know there was an old lady in a hairnet drowning in your pond?””

Blush Telegraph

I have been having a bit of fun with my Telegraph page (a gardening agony column) recently. Totally fed up with readers sending me endless pictures of crisply dying bay trees (sometimes without even any accompanying question), expecting clairvoyancy on the subject of their teetering-on-the-brink hydrangeas and whingeing about myriad buds dropping off camellias andContinue reading “Blush Telegraph”

Thorny Problems – progress report and events

My book, Thorny Problems, has been out barely a week and I am pleased to say it is doing really rather well… After hefty promotion in The Telegraph on Saturday, Amazon sold out (but that has been sorted out by now I dare say), and when I last looked it was at no. 2 on theirContinue reading “Thorny Problems – progress report and events”

Grow your own leaves

No, this is not – to my knowledge – a reference to yet another RHS tome in the successful series, but refers to my passion for foliage. When I was writing Grow Your Own Flowers, shrubs and trees and perennials grown for the sheer beauty of their leaves were, as the title of the book kind of suggests, elbowed asideContinue reading “Grow your own leaves”

I’m on the radio

Just a quick post to say that I was on BBC Radio Kent yesterday, talking about my RHS book. Here’s the iPlayer link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00cvvkc/Sunday_Gardening_09_01_2011 I’m on from about 35mins. Helen

RHS’s ‘Grow Your Own Flowers’ – an ego trip? Moi? (Well, just a tiny one maybe)

One of the fascinating things about having one’s own blog – even if one doesn’t actually ever post on it very much – is looking at what you, the public, type into search engines to get here. You’re an odd bunch, you really are. A not inconsiderable number of you seem to be preoccupied with myContinue reading “RHS’s ‘Grow Your Own Flowers’ – an ego trip? Moi? (Well, just a tiny one maybe)”

Hooray for my allotment – and my friends

I am generally a very unbloggy blogger – I don’t normally share random immediate thoughts, although perhaps The One Show bit and my Charles Darwin post were a bit off the usually fairly carefully thought-out rails. However, I would just like to share with readers the fact that despite the hideous work-enforced neglect of my allotment thisContinue reading “Hooray for my allotment – and my friends”