January Garden Tips
Happy New Year to all readers. Celebrate the New Year with a feast for the birds and the bees. Leave a few unwanted or spoiled apples on the lawn for the blackbirds, they like to [...]
January Garden Tips
Pulmonaria rubra Mild: Due to the late arrival of winter there have been some unseasonal spring flowers appearing during December. Pulmonaria rubra is always early, but I’ve never seen it before Christmas, exchorda, [...]
January Garden Tips
Hamemelis x intermedia 'Pallida' is unmarred by a bit of snow. Books for reading: ‘Hygge’ is the keyword here, from what I gather it means being cosy inside while the weather does bad [...]
February Garden Tips
After a long break this Garden Tips newsletter is getting going again, gearing up for the coming Season. 1st and 2nd of February are the feast days of St. Bridget, Candlemass, Imbolg, celebrations of very [...]
February Garden Tips
Waterfall at Rode Hall, Cheshire Snowdrops have already made an appearance, OK early, but not ridiculously so. Last year on a cold clear day in February I went with Cheshire Gardens Trust to [...]
February Garden Tips
Feast your eyes on sheets of snowdrops: There are special open days at gardens not otherwise accessible at this time of year: Snowdrops at Rode Hall Rode Hall, Church Lane, Scholar Green, Cheshire, [...]
March Garden Tips
March 2016 - coming in like a lion March can still bite like a lion. Frost and snow is not uncommon. The photo showing the fat flower buds of a morello cherry against [...]
March Garden Tips
Cornus mas Flowers! Colour! Scent! Even though it’s freezing cold the days are getting longer and the landscape is no longer uniformly grey and brown. There are shrubs and bulbs doing their thing: [...]
April Garden Tips
Yellow as a baby chick for Easter: Nothing celebrates the coming of spring like sunshine yellow flowers. Even dandelions have their moment, providing nourishment for winter starved bumble bees. Although it is probably best to [...]
April Garden Tips
Camelia x williamsii 'Donation' Spring Zing: Suddenly there is blossom, there are flowers, even before the leaves, in some cases, emphasising the flowers against a clear sky. When the leaves do come, they [...]
April Garden Tips
Narcissus poeticus Scents in April: There may be the occasional warm day - it is possible. Warmth brings out the first scented flowers of the year, which are so welcome and so enjoyable, [...]
April Garden Tips
“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower” It is hard to believe but in a matter of days, leaves will be unfurling, birds nesting, bulbs and shrubs flowering and seeds germinating. [...]
May Garden Tips
Spring is so unpredictable; rain, sun wind, hail, thunder, rainbows, some warm days - some cold nights. The sun comes out, we put out the deck chairs, the sun goes behind a cloud and the [...]
May Garden Tips
“..adorned like sweet May”: This is the time of year when foliage is at its freshest and most vivid. New grass lights the fields. In the garden unfolding leaves shine in the morning sun with [...]
May Garden Tips
Smells and Grace: Those of us who are lucky enough to garden on acid soil can grow some rather brilliant plants. I turn my attention particularly to scented Rhododendrons, I don’t just mean the deciduous varieties [...]
May Garden Tips
Apple blossom A touch of frothy blossom to welcome in the month of May. Flowering is late here in the top half of the country, the year has been cold so far. Flowering [...]
June Garden Tips
Aquilegia 'Pink Barlow' June. lovely June. With a bit of warmth, which surely must be coming, June is the month of roses and clematis and early herbaceous such as aquilegias and geraniums plus [...]
June Garden Tips
In the pink, magenta splatter and purple haze of colour. After the dulcet tints of Spring, the flowers that herald Summer ramp up intensity in colour saturation. Lovely and reliable perennials shine out in [...]
June Garden Tips
Buzz Buzz Buzz - listen to the sounds of bees working hard while you lie on the grass and stare at the sky. Try to provide flowers for bees all year round, also have a [...]
July Garden Tips
Resilience: Within the last seven days it has been both too hot and too cold. Big fluctuations in temperature affect small seedlings adversely, then the slugs move in. The peas and broad beans I planted [...]