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...
Want to get Published? by Claire Austin
If you’ve ever wondered about the freedom of no agent, no editor, no publisher, just you, your words and freedom – this is for you. Hope it helps. Anne Wareham, editor WRITING THAT BOOK by Claire Austin THE NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE All gardeners want to grow...
Sissinghurst – forever, for everyone? by John Sales
I thought this response to last week’s piece, Commercial at what Cost? from John Sales, the National Trust’s chief gardens adviser until his retirement in 1998, merited a separate post. Anne Wareham, editor John Sales: Your thoughtful piece about Troy...
Recent Posts from: Veddw
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. […]
Snowdrop mania is coming…
In the UK, right now, the horticultural world is about to drive us all mad with snowdrops. Pictures of. Articles about. Gardens with them. Anything people can think of to bash us over the head with snowdrops.
Brilliant Brecon
Recently we made a visit to Brecon. This is not far from us, in case anyone was getting over excited about the possibility that I might have been travelling again. It’s in Wales, in the Brecon Beacons, recently re-christened Bannau Brycheiniog.
You should have been here Next Year
Charles made a complaint recently when we were walking in the garden.
When I complained about him complaining he told me that it was good for me to have complaints about the planting.
Garden Seats – to make and sit on.
I am discovering more and more often that it is important to have a great many seats in the garden. In fact there should probably be one every three feet or so.
