Do we need Garden Experts? by Anne Wareham
I know – you waited all this time for a new piece and now it’s just me. Still: is it time we changed our perspective on ‘Garden Experts’? What do you think? Anne Wareham, editor Anne Wareham: This winter, Graham Rice , a garden...
I’m not renewing my RHS Membership by Julieanne Porter
Having just been exposed to the expensive bonanza which is Chelsea, it seemed appropriate to look at the issue of garden costs again. This time the issue is the cost of RHS membership. This is a little close to my heart because the Veddw used to be a Partnership...
Well loved – or totally forgotten? Russell Page Exhibition reviewed by Francois Gordon
Russell Page is being honoured at present by the Garden Museum in London. To publicise the exhibition, Christopher Woodward, the director of the Museum, wrote a piece for the Telegraph headed ‘The most famous garden designer no-one has ever heard...
The Cost of a Garden by Tristan Gregory
I have to report, with mixed feelings, that the demands of happy domestic life have taken over one of our best and most prolific contributors. How could I not be happy for Tristan? Or sorry for us? So this may be one of fewer Tristan Gregory contributions. One thing...
Pleasance in Suburbia by Genny Twigg
We’ve all read something like it…. Anne Wareham, editor Pleasance in Suburbia, by Genny Twigg In brief Name: 102, 1956 semi-detached bungalow Points of Interest: Edwardian formal style influenced by Arts and Crafts movement, planting taken from William...
Volunteer Gardeners: The Enemy Within, by Rachel Cassidy
Are you a garden volunteer? Or a professional gardener? An employer of either? You may find this piece interesting. Anne Wareham, editor Volunteer Gardeners: The Enemy Within, by Rachel Cassidy: At this very moment, in a thousand gardens up and down the country,...
I like the grasses: fun at a Gallery.
Yesterday Charles and I paid a visit to the new gallery, Hauser and Wirth, in Somerset. You’ll be hearing much about this place as Piet Oudolf has designed a garden for it. This is not a review – the garden is very new (though of course it has already...
Doing the Art by Holly Allen
What is it like to create a garden as a work of art? Holly Allen discusses that in this piece, which is an interesting follow up to last week’s review of ‘Are Gardens Art’? Anne Wareham, editor Holly Allen: Most people will probably think it precious...
Community Gardens: do we care?
I am very busy just now, so instead of the usual post I am inviting a discussion by means of two links about community gardens. Do we really care about them? Are they a sop to a sentimental notion of community? Do they open up gardening? Do we like them? Are they...
Naff names by Katherine Crouch
There may be slightly less posting here over the next four months, as I have just signed a contract to write a book. (over 20 thousand copies sold so far..2017.) Forty thousand words before Christmas and we’ve still got coach parties and Sunday openings at the...
More Chelsea
I’m risking boring everyone with more Chelsea stuff – in this case, some thoughts about the actual 2014 show: mine and those of Katherine Crouch. I promise that normal service will be resumed shortly. (ie not quite so often ..) Anne Wareham, editor I...
Everyone has their idea of paradise: an interview with John Sales by Anne Wareham
I’ve been preoccupied with the gap between the professionally designed garden and the garden of the serious amateur for some years, particularly because I experience garden design as an ongoing process which I am involved with daily at Veddw, rather than a one off...
Show gardens: what are they for? by Wanda Oprea
I would like to propose that show gardens could be simply for delight, illumination or challenge – or whatever we would like a great work of art to be. But that is still whistling in the dark. Maybe they are a form of flower arranging? The following is what...
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.
