happymarion

Talkback: Rosemary leaf beetle

Still to see a rosemary beetle in Bristol, Richard, and my garden has many large rosemary bushes and sage bushes in it.Do you know if their range has spread to the West Country yet? I have not heard that any gardeners here have had trouble. Usually the loss of rosemary bushes is put down to a harsh winter like we had year before last.

Help with Identification please

AHA!  The Stewarton Flower.  Usually pink so the common name is Pink Purslane, but white in n. Ayrshire.

Talkback: A gold medal at Chelsea

Well done, Andy. So glad the old faithfuls did well for you. Naturalistic planting is the spirit of the age, When I had my Open Garden I overheard a visitor say "All gardens should be like this". If only more roundabouts and parks would do the same. Our pollinators need it; our food supply needs it; our souls need it.

Help with Identification please

One of the wintergreens?

Talkback: Diarmuid Gavin's Chelsea garden

My sentiments exactly. So many people say to me as they marvel at the size of my garden "Do you do it all yourself" as if it were a chore. I assure them it does not seem like work because I enjoy every minute of it. Another way to make most use of a tiny plot is to grow smaller plants. It does not take many square metres to grow hundreds of species of alpines. The square foot way of growing vegetables is also a solution. Or invade the house like I have. Very seldom does the conservatory get any other use than growing plants, or the window-sill all round the bungalow. Perhaps if developers cannot provide a big garden in a new development they should consider having deep windowsills.

Gardens devoid of life

I have lived through it all.  When I was fisrt allowed to grow marigolds and nasrurtiums in my 12year-old uncle's garden I was six and he insisted I grow them in a straight line.  There was no use in the thirties for anything but utility. Production was everything.  As prosperity grew after the war design took a hold but then the effect of overproduction in agriculture ruined the "natural" garden of our countryside (except I think in Devon which I have just visited and it is beautiful) and we gardeners have to push design aside and help our native flora and fauna survive.  I try to do it in my own garden and think the birds, bees , butterflies, "weeds" and all the other wildlife that consoders it their home as well contribute to that beauty.

Talkback: Growing aquilegias

One of my tasks at the Bristol Bot. Garden recently was to pot up Semiaquilegia adoxoides, three to pot for our plant sale. I was allowed to take home any odd ones so i was delighted when two were spare, as I too love aquilegias. Of course mine were given a pot each and now one has a bud. After my self-sown bluebells and forget-me-nots have finished their show in my garden the aquilegias, quaking grass, poppies and mileum aureum - the golden grass , take their place. The aquilegias are particularly fine this year with lots od white ones. I have no idea where they have come from.

Gardens devoid of life

Ah, there does not seem to be an oportunity for gardeners like me who just love gardening itself to show our wares at Chelsea.  Perhaps a little cinema or an outdoor screen showing walks through gardens brimming with blossom would do it

 

Here are two pictures from my garden taken in the rain which has just started.

Talkback: Planting out tomatoes

Ah, so that's why my tomato plants went like hotcakes at my Open Day, even after the organiser insisted I put the price up from 30p to 50p! Hard luck, Kate. Perhaps some good friend who lives near can give you some plants?

Talkback: Self-seeding plants

PS I've just cut my long grass with the kitchen scissors and found masses of alpine strawberries covered in flowers.

picture difficulties

SOS 

Talkback: Gardening in Russia

Awww, it was the same for my sister gardening in Edmonton in Canada, James. It was amazing how much they could grow in their very short thr... 

Spring sweethearts

The sun shone brightly enough for my tulips to open up,something that thrills me every spring. 

Spring Spectacular

The Garden Sculpture Exhibition at the Bristol Botanic Garden  

Talkback: House sparrows

In the eighties I used to stop counting at 20 when the sparrows descended on my garden. The wild patch og groud at the back of my garden wa... 

Gardeners World new season

How was it for you 

Talkback: Blind daffodils

You would not think from seeing the wonderful display our hellebores are putting on in the Bristol Botanic Garden that they once had the dre... 

Talkback: Good things about February

Oh, and Iris unguilaris is at its height though it can flower for ten months of the year. Pancake day has just been and I made 32 of them. ... 

Talkback: Waiting for the snow to thaw

Ah. James. I already have a duck pond at the kitchen door and loads of birdseed and crumbled fat balls on the paths. lots of eucalyptus bar... 

Talkback: Learning from 2012

I have vowed only to grow early potatoes anf harvest them before the dreaded blight, and only Gardeners; Delight or similar tomatoes and yel... 

Winter wonders

What is beautiful in the winter garden 

Talkback: 2013 in the garden

Happy New Year to you too, James and my resolution is the same as it has been for as many years as I can remember for just that - to make it... 

Talkback: Winkworth Arboretum

So with you there, Pippa, as long as it is not too cold. Stretching my legs at the Brisol Bot. Garden on Thursday in between cleaning seed ... 

Grow it and eat it

A combination of gardening and cooking is long overdue. 

Talkback: December gardening jobs

I have to go up to my spinney and cut cornus sticks which are now bright red to stick into my spreads of white heather at the front gate whi...