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”
Category Archives: Musings
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”
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”
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”
Labour pains
As I hinted before, my summer has been dominated by writing books, two of which came along at once, and neither of which could be turned down. It is a long time since I wrote Gardening in your Nightie after all, so it is time I did something new. One book is relatively low key affairContinue reading “Labour pains”
All booked up…
Amalee Issa has given me a dig in the ribs today. Not a word, not a single word, have I written here in six months – or is it more? – she says. I have an excuse: I am in the thick of it with not just one, but two books. So instead of writingContinue reading “All booked up…”
Richard Zatloukal
One of my oldest and very best friends Richard Zatloukal has died in Thailand (where he has lived for years) – too early, of course, at the age of 67. This always amiable, chain-smoking, hyperactive eccentric had extraordinary intellectual curiosity, was a brilliant wordsmith, a talented painter and had one of the best brains I have everContinue reading “Richard Zatloukal”
Too soggy to blog
I have been exceedingly lax about keeping this going – partly overwork, partly the fact that, when not mopping up INDOORS after downpours (oh yes, drips just missing bowls and buckets everywhere), I have been gripped by a creative urge and have been digging up part of my lawn in order to augment/amend the border plantings. ThereContinue reading “Too soggy to blog”
Helen Yemm 