The Deckchair Gardener reviewed by Catharine Howard
When Catharine asked me if she could review The Deckchair Gardener for thinkingardens I just felt pleased – as you do when someone wants to review your book. I had no idea originally whether she would slam it, knowing my declared commitment to honesty, and I was...
Posh Day Out for Katherine Crouch
Although this took place quite some time ago, it seems to me that many thinkingardens readers will find interest in what goes on at this prestigious annual event. And others will simply find it very entertaining. With thanks to our willing victim, Katherine Crouch....
Essay on Gardening by Henk Gerritsen, reviewed by Catharine Howard
This review made me buy the book. It’s a real thinkingardens treat. But the cost on Amazon made me blench. Couldn’t find it cheaper. I ended up with the paperback at £27, with all the photos in black and white (see below). And I wanted to buy Site,...
The Ultimate Visitor Experience by Janna Schreier
This is the question that a great many of us would like to make sense of, and here is someone actually seriously researching it for us – with your assistance, I hope. It would be great if you would answer the survey and help add to our understanding of our...
Can a walk be a garden? The High Line revisited by Bridget Rosewell.
We’re back, troublesome as ever. Has anyone else bar Bridget found the High Line less than perfect? Count on thinkingardens for a different view… Anne Wareham, editor Bridget Rosewell: What is it about the High Line in...
Having a Break
Hi everyone. I bet you’re all upset and worried because you haven’t seen a thinkingardens post for a while. “What will we think about?” I hear you cry. We’re all daft like this, us bloggers – think the world will fall apart if we...
‘There is a place for jokes, and a place for not-jokes’ – Ambra Edwards meets Ian Hamilton Finlay
This is the first of a series of repeated and rejuvenated early articles from thinkingardens. I’ve been aware for some time that there are excellent pieces on here which many people don’t find. (though there is an index on site) And that if they did,...
Small gardens, anyone? Book Review by Susan Wright
Is this the book everyone wants? Small gardens? Anne Wareham, editor. New Small Garden reviewed by Susan Wright New Small Garden is Noel Kingsbury’s latest book. It’s a comprehensive guide to the “principles, planting and practice” of small...
Designers Damned by Lou Nicholls
I know that garden designers, gardeners and garden makers read and contribute to thinkingardens, so here’s a cat to set amongst you pigeons. Does it hit a spot? Or is it totally unreal? Feel free to comment, or even to offer a piece countering the case made...
More Monet from Paul Steer
Never imagine that a book review on thinkingardens will be boring. Or that it will only tell you about the book being reviewed. There’s usually more meat on the bone, just as there is with this one by Paul Steer, – an artist and NGS garden opener. Anne...
The Lesson of Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden
Troy Scott-Smith suggested that Andrea Russo and Paola Avesani would be good people to review Beth Chatto’s latest book Drought Resistant Planting. It turned out that language problems were going to make that difficult, so instead they wrote a piece for...
Old Fashioned? Review by Mark Laurence
One of the earliest books I bought was Beth Chatto’s ‘The Dry Garden’ (1978) – no idea why since I garden in the wet West. (I did buy ‘The Damp Garden’ too though.) Dry gardens are still her theme thirty eight years later. Wonder...
Gardeners, Designers – or Garden Makers? by Anne Wareham
My apologies. This was not the piece I intended to publish this week, and I had no intention of popping up again so soon to annoy you. But today I got annoyed and you know how rare that is. For many years I had wanted to define and articulate the difference between...
Recent Posts from: Veddw
Making Veddw Garden: part 2: we arrive.
. I really had no idea what you had in mind, either. I think if I had, I’d have been freaked out. I don’t actually think you ever said “one day all this will be a garden”. I’d have thought you deranged.
Making Veddw Garden – a Love Story: part 1.
And out of what felt to be the ruins of my life, I turned to an ambition to make another garden.
Ambivalence about Snowdrops
Well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a happy Christmas. We were both full of cough and were quite unwell. I have not recovered, and I find myself quite unable to write anything new. So I dipped into The Bad Tempered Gardener to offer you a piece on those plants which gardeners obsess about at this time […]
I’ve fallen in love with these.
I love my garden, I do. It’s at the heart of my life. But just recently I’ve been drawn back and back to a windowsill with some sweet dwarf pelargoniums.
Favour the Ferns
Many years ago The Financial Times sent me to do a feature on the RHS ‘Flower Show’ at Tatton Park . I was totally naïve and had no idea what I was supposed to do or to write about. So my excitement was tempered by acute anxiety. The term ‘imposter syndrome’ could have been invented for me. […]
