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Along with Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, Hatchards bookshop and Paxton’s cheese shop, I’ve added Niwaki to my list of favourite London shops to visit when in town. Small but perfectly formed, its Zen-like interior and presentation of gardening tools, kit and clothing is the antithesis of the screaming bustle found at Selfridges, just around the…
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‘It must get quiet for you at this time of year,’ they say, ehhh… hardly. When all things green go to sleep in the garden, there are still fences to be repaired or painted, new sheds to build, ponds to be cleaned, trees to prune, bare-root shrubs and roses to plant, rooms to paint and…
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Well, it was a long time coming but when it did, oh my did the heavens open. A continual deluge of rain fell for ten straight days and nights, however, it was much-needed and gratefully received. The first few days the rain simply bounced back off the rock-solid ground, being unable to penetrate it, by…
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August, balmy days and nights when the garden reaches its bounteous prime, in a few weeks it will have exhausted itself, displaying floppy tell-tale signs of going over, as everything slowly descends to seed… don’t we all. Well, thank goodness for pots, even if it’s hard work staying on top of all the watering, however, being able to move them to…
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However, not this hot! What can I say about this weather that you’ve not already heard? Of course, no one has ever experienced 104 degrees in England before. I can tell you this… having visited various clients’ gardens in the last few weeks, I’ve never seen so much damage and destruction to the foliage of…
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Now all chance of frosts has passed, it’s time to start planting out the tomatoes, along with their wonderful accompaniment, basil… just add mozzarella, a slug of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes. Last year’s crop was particularly bountiful, in part due to the fact of lining all the…
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Well, that must have been the driest Jan/Feb I can remember in London for a long time, having to water the plants in the garden in winter, now there’s an odd thing, more evidence of climatic changes? Talking of watering, I’ve promised this year to install an irrigation system for the ferns along the…
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In the garden we mostly get it right, occasionally we get it wrong, but that’s ok. As a new gardener, it’s impossible to avoid your fair share of trial and error, and expense, think ‘Science Lab’ at school, but wasn’t that part and parcel of the fun, the occasional black sooted face and hair resembling…
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Along with royal purple (check out the Beautyberry), burnt orange has to be my next favourite colour. The slow metamorphosis of leaves turning from green to nut-brown is an annual spectacle to behold in the garden. The Acer (maple) leaf is not unlike a snowflake, symmetrical perfection. It’s the one you see in those stunning photos showing ‘The…
Frances McKevitt Frances McKevitt The Handy Gardener. John Betjeman Niawki Poddy & Black Sarah Raven The Handy Gardener