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Kentish Belles
Over the next couple of weekends, two of Kent’s most beautiful and enigmatic gardens will be opening their gates to the curious public. Both reveal their secrets on just one day each year, so are a...
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Spring comes to Saltwood
Yesterday the hedgerows were heavy with may flower and vital with leaf as we drove from Broadstairs to Saltwood Castle for the 2014 NSPCC plant fair. Despite a chill in the air we threw the soft-top...
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Great Balls of Fire – Sandling Park in May
There was such an extraordinary amount going on in May that I am now working through a draft post pile-up. In contrast to the scarcity of blogging fodder during the winter months, early summer offers...
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Elham NGS Open Gardens
Nestled in a broad, fertile valley cutting a swathe through East Kent, Elham is the very essence of England. During W.W.II Sir Anthony Eden lived in a house outside the village and Audrey Hepburn...
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Old Bladbean Stud, Elham, Kent
Joyful and life affirming is how I’d describe the garden at Old Bladbean Stud. Hidden among the labyrinthine lanes of South East Kent, owner Carol Bruce has created a garden of great substance from a...
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The Watch House Awaits….
In just less than two weeks, we open our garden at The Watch House in Broadstairs for the National Gardens Scheme. It has not been a long held ambition to let the public in, in fact it still seems a...
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The Watch House NGS Open Weekend 2014
It was about this time last year when our friend Beth began twisting our arm to open for the National Gardens Scheme. We took the plunge, and in February found ourselves numbered 104 on the map of Kent...
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Daily Flower Candy: Amaryllis belladonna
Whether it’s candy floss, baby, lipstick or rose, when it comes to autumn flowering bulbs, shades of pink are decidedly de rigueur. Right now there are colchicums, schizostylis, crinums, cyclamen and...
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Sissinghurst – Fire and Ice
By late summer both of our plots have started to run out of puff, so I am always keen to seek out gardens which manage to keep up a good head of steam into autumn. Sissinghurst is open almost every day...
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Feeling Fruity
These juicy shots are principally for the delight and delectation of my Aussie friend Helen, who is a great proponent of all sorts of heritage fruit and vegetables. For the first time in many years we...
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On The Beach
Just after Christmas we popped over to Whitstable for a spot of Champagne and shopping with our friend Karen. Situated on the Thames estuary, Whitstable’s beaches are shingly rather than sandy, their...
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Daily Flower Candy: Smyrnium olusatrum
We have much to thank the Romans for – libraries, hot baths, straight roads, aqueducts and stinging nettles among them – but over time we have forgotten the delights of Smyrnium olusatrum, otherwise...
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Saltwood Castle NSPCC Plant Fair 2015
Driving south to the pretty village of Saltwood for the annual NSPCC plant fair has become something of a tradition in our household. Even Him Indoors looks forward to going, or at least pretends to....
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Sandling Park Open Garden 2015
The chance to view the extraordinary collection of rhododendrons and azaleas built up by the Hardy family at Sandling Park in Kent is one of the highlights of my May. I adore these acid loving shrubs,...
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The American Garden, Saltwood, Kent
Primped and polished gardens are all very well (we’ll be seeing a lot of them at Chelsea in a few days’ time) but for those of us who work and can’t afford help they can be a little intimidating. Small...
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A Walk on Walmer’s Wild Side
We needed to blow away the cobwebs today, so settled on a drive down to one of our favourite spots, the stretch of coastline between Kingsdown and Walmer in Kent. The sun was up, the hood was down and...
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Afternoon Delight
After a night of tumultuous storms, Saturday, the day of our friend Karen’s annual beach hut party, dawned bright and fresh. We made our way to Whitstable on the train and, by way of Regent Street, to...
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Daily Flower Candy: Viper’s Bugloss
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of echiums. I love their jewel-coloured flowers, the way they attract bees to the garden and their incredible range of stature; from sprawling...
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Agave Agony
A sun-soaked stroll along the beach between Broadstairs and Ramsgate, picking up chalk pebbles and gnarled flints, ultimately leads us back to The Italianate Glasshouse in King George VI park. Through...
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Walmer Castle Gardens
Like fry through the holes in a fisherman’s net, certain gardens I visit manage to escape being written about on my blog. It’s not that these gardens are too small, simply that the day’s catch is so...
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