BEHIND THE SCENES – WITH THE GARDENERS AT SISSINGHURST April showers? Torrential downpours, broken by bright sunshine – we huddled under NT lost property umbrellas, oblivious to the weather just happy to have this opportunity of seeing some hidden corners of Sissinghurst not generally on view to the public! We took refuge under the arch [...]
Author Archives: kvh
Dan Pearson – Plantsman and garden designer
March 19, 2012 – 1:08 pm
Yesterday to RHS Lecture Halls in London to hear Dan Pearson give a fascinating presentation on his gardening career, focusing on some of the very contrasting gardens he has designed and established. He started very young and was always, in his words ‘gardening on the edge of nature’ as his family restored a severely neglected [...]
King John’s Lodge
July 11, 2011 – 10:04 pm
Birdsong greets me together with the sweet smell of the dawn summer rain lingering in the air; chickens run freely – one accompanying me as I take the rose walk through the orchard where old roses scramble freely over the trees and wind their way over low, metalwork arches (you have to duck under them [...]
Bradness – an artists garden
July 11, 2011 – 9:30 pm
I received a warm welcome at Bradness Gallery and Garden from Mike and Emma – two artists whose love of colour and strong images has led them to create a beautiful and tranquil garden, filled with blooms and birdsong! The garden falls gently away behind their studio and the timber-framed farmhouse which dates from 1370. [...]
Anna Pavord and Fergus Garrett in conversation
April 8, 2011 – 9:56 pm
Over to Brighton in the evening of the first day of April – the grey morning mist had given way to bright sunshine for what promised to be a lively evening: Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener at Great Dixter, in conversation with garden writer, author and journalist Anna Pavord. With all of his usual verve and [...]
Late summer at Dixter
October 31, 2010 – 5:39 pm
Visit to Dixter – 10/09/08. Come the late summer, the colours are intense, rich, mature - glowing with a depth unmatched the rest of the year. The welcoming pots clustered around the ancient front porch contain Ageratums, Coleus (Solenostemon), Canna, Rudbeckia, Agapanthus, Dahlias – the brightness of colour and the use of plants like the [...]
Chelsea Physic Garden
July 12, 2010 – 1:00 pm
Four acres of horticultural delights are to be found tucked away behind the Royal Hospital site (home to the famous Chelsea Flower Show) in Chelsea. Founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries of London, the Chelsea Physic Garden offered the apprentices the opportunity to grow and study medicinal plants. The site had previously been [...]
African Plants to grow in British Gardens/The World Garden at Lullingstone Castle
December 28, 2008 – 5:37 pm
RHS Regional talk by Chris Bailes, curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon, on South African plants which might happily grow in British gardens. The talk was hosted by Kent Gardens Trust and held at Lullingstone Castle where the World Garden was flowering profusely – including many South African plants. The right conditions are needed to [...]
Secrets of the summer borders at Nymans
September 11, 2008 – 2:11 pm
Originally herbaceous borders, the summer borders at Nymans reverted to the old intensive ‘bedding out’ style of gardening in the 1960′s and ’70′s at the instigation of the Earl and Countess Ross who spent their summers at Nymans and wanted a fantastic August display. This style of planting had all but died out as the [...]
Sissinghurst castle garden – a walk with the Head Gardener
May 14, 2008 – 8:03 pm
A treat this afternoon – a walk with the head gardener, Alexis Datta around an empty (!) Sissinghurst (on a Wednesday, when it is closed to the public). The National Trust run a series of walks such as this at their different gardens. Yet again we were blessed with an incredibly blue sky, bright sunshine [...]
