I have been talking recently about sensory aspects of gardening, with colour and form. Today it is the turn of texture. Specifically, flower texture. When I was a child, I liked fluff. I remember staying in a hotel one night and having an incredibly fluffy blanket. I kept pulling off bits of wool all night and in…
Shelter
I wrote a post last Sunday called From Screen to Green which was all about ways to entice children away from their devices into the garden. My two daughters had just returned from Australia that morning. I always encourage them to spend time outdoors on the day they return, as daylight can help to re-set the…
Supersonic
I am mixing my senses here, but I do tend to a degree of synaesthesia when describing colour and its intensity. Whilst supersonic really relates to speed, it is the word that keeps coming to me when I look at these pictures of the bright border and need a word to describe the intensity of…
From Screen to Green
We’re halfway through the summer holidays in the UK and I wonder how many households are having arguments over screens? If left to their own devices my children would spend hours in front of a screen. As I would have done at their age. And did, in fact, with the telly. Screen-time can be creative…
A breath of fresh air
Today we were joined by my fabulous step-daughter, K, who is with us for four weeks. She helped me choose the photos for this post, and chatted to me throughout. So there might be some weird sentences as I accidentally type random words from our conversations. Here is the lovely view from the table. That’s…
Infatuation
It is easy to think that the garden has done what it is going to do this summer. We can only deadhead spent blooms and keep things watered, and continue to keep things going into autumn. And then it does this! Which very quickly become this: And then they do this! And you just can’t…
Another dimension: making use of form
The tagline to my website is ‘the sensory pleasures and earthy delights of gardening’. What I mean by that is making the most of all the sensory qualities of plants in the garden, in order to really enjoy all it has to offer. Our enjoyment of the garden includes taking in information from all our…
Glamour
Regular readers will be aware that last weekend I was engulfed by a) envy and then b) admiration for Sarah Raven at the Perch Hill Open garden. Some of her style seems to have rubbed off on me! I should say that I am possibly the least glamourous person in the world. I don’t wear any jewellery…
Pure Admiration
This post is a companion piece for yesterday’s post about Sarah Raven’s Dahlia trial beds, Pure Envy. Today I will take you around the cutting gardens and Oast House, and we will see how we are all feeling by the end. You enter the gardens through the cutting gardens. My eye was immediately drawn to…
Comparing the growth habit of different roses
A few weeks ago, in response to my post The garden that keeps on giving, Ann asked if I could show photos of the growth habit of the David Austin English roses ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ and ‘Roald Dahl’. I thought I would go the whole hog and write a post about the growth habit of…
Pure Envy
Sarah Raven is the reason I am so obsessed by flowers. Anyone who has her catalogue plop through their door will know why. On the ‘Grow your own cut flowers’ Facebook page last week, the lovely LP posted a picture of the newest catalogue with the comment “Well this is dangerous”. We all knew exactly…
