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After all the winds and rain that swept through earlier in the week (and which washed away poor Pippa's iris) a calm has descended on this part of the world.Wandering around this morning I've noticed that spring has been inching in under cover

Spring is here, although nobody seems to have told the weather department yet. This week's biting easterly wind felt more like standing at a Siberian bus stop than April in an English country garden.However, the evidence of spring is out

I love the delicate flowers of prunus, although I'm not so keen on the blowsier, pink varieties I sometimes see in other gardens. The smaller, more delicate spring blossom hits the spot for me.Like most gardeners, I also have a nose for a bargain

Easter always reminds me of my childhood. I attended a village school in Somerset and we used to pick bunches of primroses (Primula vulgaris), tie them up with coloured wool, place them in baskets and decorate the church.It is sad to think that in my lifetime so many of our nativ...

I think it is time for another deeply prejudiced personal rant about my least favourite plants. Spring is, if not exactly just around the corner, then definitely packed, dressed and on its way. With the spring comes the return to our gardens

With all the other work to get on with on the plot, the cold frame has been somewhat neglected over the past month or so. It's served its purpose brilliantly this spring, though its contents are now bursting out of the sides with quite a terrifying

What a tremendous pleasure it is to grow sunflowers from seed. Thousands of children up and down the country sow sunflowers in spring, no doubt hoping to grow the tallest and enter the Guinness Book of Records.My sunflowers will never do

I've had mixed results with calla lilies over the years. It's getting them going in spring that's caused me problems. I don't think I provide them with enough heat as I don't want the expense of heating my greenhouse. Until two years ago, they

In 15 years of exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show, I've never known such a late spring. Here on the farm the blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, is still flowering. Interestingly, because it flowers early in spring, a cold spell of weather at this time

I do love the garden in October - especially in the sunshine. In the early Spring it is all about hope and waiting: all that mulch and neatly tidied brown border. A month or so later and there is green stuff and bulbs all over the place. Then we