For Christmas 2020 my son gave me a razor sharp Japanese pair of secateurs, with holster….. …and – a pair of Bradleys’ leather gardening gauntlets…. Aren’t they just beautiful. That soft white leather for the hands, warmly and cosily lined, yet fitting closely enough to do quite delicate gardening jobs. Those heavy duty long arms, …
Gardening with Heath Hands
Scything the wild flowers on the Boating Pond island
After the major countrywide floods of the early and mid Noughties the Corporation of London and the surrounding boroughs got very worried that the streams that run down through the Hampstead ponds might get out of hand and flood the good people of Gospel Oak and Kentish Town. So massive flood protection works were put …
Scything the wild flowers on the Boating Pond islandRead More
About gardens
The garden at Hampstead Lane has discovered ‘life’and is proclaiming its discovery in no uncertain manner. The deep bed which runs around the raised patio is positively rammed: heuchera fighting with geranium Rozannes, cotinus, the ponytail grasses, the acers, the roses, the corkscrew hazel, the achemilla, the erigerons – all desperate to be seen! The …
Himalayan balsam
Pretty, isn’t it? And it looks lovely when it lines the route of a railway line or a river. But… In the Himalayas, from whence it hoves, balsam is kept reasonably under control by rust fungus (Puccinia komarovii var. glanduliferae for those who want to be technical). But in the UK the rust fungus is …
Weeding the Heath
It is spring – and although there has been very little rain, that has not stopped the weeds galloping across the heath. Just flicking through my images from the last half dozen gardening sessions I realise that we have done very little apart from weed. Here is Keiran in the Golders Hill Park walled garden …
Working with Heath Hands
I would hesitate to say that the steamingly hot mug of tea and handful of biscuits that you get half way through your gardening session (here being dispensed by the lovely Ash in the Hill Garden) is the main attraction of working with Heath Hands – but it certainly puts a kick in your spade! …