It is such a truly awful day here in Highgate – charcoal grey skies, pouring with rain, thick-cardigan cold – that it seemed the right moment to report on my extremely soggy visits last week to the wonderful gardens at Cothay Manor and Mapperton House in Dorset. I was staying my my keen gardening friend, …
Gardens
Honkas, woodpiles and Rocombe Farm
These are Honkas – proper name, Dahlia Honka Surprise – and who could resist such happy, smiley flowers? Both of them live in Sue (Sue, as in gluten-free beer expert Sue)’s garden up behind Lyme Regis. Also in Sue’s garden, this very ‘Interiors’ table with a vase of montbretia … and, very impressively, this very …
Around the World in 80 Trees
Yes, more trees – but this time not my trees but Jonathan Drori’s trees – or at least 80 of his favourites. A trustee or past trustee of the Eden Project, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Woodland Trust and a documentary film maker, Jonathan Drori is above all a lover of trees. …
More w/e garden
What is this, I asked a few blogs ago? Comfrey, said Matthew of Troyes House – and he absolutely right… Although it is more normal to see it as a mauve flower than a white one. Symphytum officinale, according to Foraging and Wild, ‘a unique group of government accredited foragers’. They have lots of information …
Weekend in the garden – and on Peter Hill
Because it was such a beautiful day, I thought I would relieve the pressure on Hampstead Heath by staying put in my garden. So this is early morning at the boating pond a couple of days ago. My good intentions had been to hack some more ivy but by the time that I had proof …
Down South….
Barbara lives on the south side of Hampstead Heath so this picture she took for us yesterday is of Hampstead Pond No. 1, the first pond you meet when you walk onto the heath from South End Green. To the right of the pond is a causeway which separates Pond No 1 from the Mixed …