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Who will rid me of the troublesome beasts?Help!! The deer are somehow getting into our garden again. Can our international GardenDrum support network come to the rescue with some advice? I thought I had solved the problem 18 months ago when we got the front gates working again and put up deer fencing along a low section of the boundary wall of our garden in Argyll in the west of Scotland. Continue reading
There’s a garden in my backyard!It is not the first time I am telling the story of my garden to an audience – I did that for five years when I had the most wonderful audience of garden lovers across sunny South Africa, all readers of the popular South African monthly magazine, SA Garden. Now – through GardenDrum – I hope to find a new audience of gardeners who would like to share my garden with me and share their gardens with me! For those of you who have not read any of my garden articles I published the past 10 years, let me introduce myself: I have gardening in my blood. Continue reading
Of spice and teaAs someone who came to the study of landscape history from a love of flowers and gardening, I write surprisingly little about horticulture. So, to make amends, this whole post is about some of the plants we saw on our recent trip to the southern Indian state of Kerala. Continue reading
Bounty of autumn – limes, herbs & feijoasWELL I’m in hog heaven. I’ve had a brilliant day scavenging fresh produce and then cooking the proceeds. I scored my first scavenge at a committee meeting for the Sydney group of Open Gardens Australia. Committee Chair Ros Andrews, had brought a basket of limes to share out. The committee meets at Ryde College of TAFE. In the kitchen adjacent to the committee room was a box of chokos pleading to be taken home. I took a couple, adding them to my stash.
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Australian plants for shady spotsOne of the perennial gardening problems (if you’ll pardon the awful pun) is finding plants that will thrive in shady spots next to fences or underneath established trees. Even more difficult is to find ones that also flower well in these conditions. As a lover of Australian plants I want to share a few of my favourites. Continue reading
Eye candy for autumnOne of the multitude of good things about gardening a cool to cold climate like the one I live in is the season change that it creates and for me one of the greatest seasons is the autumn. The weather is usually stable and calm so that it is by far the best time to be out in the garden (mosquitoes are usually less as well!). The days are getting shorter and the sun is at a lower level in the sky making for interesting light changes in the garden and of course deciduous trees and shrubs are turning brilliant colours to warm the cockles before the winter cold sets in and the starker beauty of winter prevails. Continue reading
That’s what gardeners doYou can always pick gardeners on holidays. They have these funny habits they indulge when they are away from their familiar terrain. I speak both of my own behaviour and from watching fellow flora enthusiasts. Continue reading
Why this spring seems late. But is it?Do you remember last spring…it came all at once in a massive explosion of color, leaves and pollen. Snowdrops, Squill and Daffodils all came at the same time, while Maples flowered and dispersed their pollen. During the last week of March in 2012, Forsythia, PJM Rhododendrons and Star Magnolias were already in full bloom and my tree lilacs, an early tree to leaf out, were already in leaf. However, this year you have to search hard to find any buds swelling and only this week did Squill start to appear and Daffodils start showing flower buds. Continue reading