Artificial Grass Is Bad For The Environment
It’s an age thing, the need for artificial grass. As I grow older and less well I envisaged plastic grass as no less essential than a Stannah stairlift. There comes a time in the life of [...]
Bulb Catalogue Fever Is A Seasonal Ailment
The post arrived today, reminding me that bulb catalogue fever is a seasonal ailment. Impulse buying is not my weakness, except when it comes to plants. I look at the gleaming catalogue photos [...]
Growing Lilies In The English Garden
I just love growing lilies. The blousiness, the exotic odour, the haughty demeanor, all the things that I am not. Perhaps this contrast between a gardener and his favourite flowers has a deep [...]
Worms And Our Human Wellbeing
BBC Springwatch asked us to enter our gardens into Gardenwatch and we did so. It seemed an apt moment because a nest of long tailed tits had erupted into our garden. Yet, disappointment arose [...]
The Unsustainable Lawn
In my forthcoming book I mention that Zuri, in 2200 BC, never knew a lawn, that lawns never existed in prehistory. In truth, that might not be strictly correct. A lawn is defined as a flat area [...]
British Flowers Better For The Environment
“I promise that I will never buy you a bunch of flowers.” It’s a promise that I have kept to my wife because British flowers have disappeared. It doesn’t make me seem [...]
Spring Bedding In The British Garden
As a pensioner gardener, I assumed that most people know what bedding is, but I am clearly wrong. I noticed some wallflowers on sale in the centre of Christchurch. They were in bunches of ten, [...]