Killing Groundhogs by Pamela Ruch
We all identify with the fury garden pests can rouse in us. But what’s the morality in dealing with them? A hot topic, I bet…and what on earth does a groundhog look like?? Anne Wareham, editor Pamela Ruch: I don’t remember the exact date a groundhog first...
The gardens of Manoir d’Eyrignac and Marqueyssac France, by Bridget Rosewell.
Some pieces hang around a bit long (sorry everyone) – this arrived in summer and it’s now after Christmas. So – a time trip back to summer, in a less soggy place than Wales… (Bridget is away at the moment – I hope she will respond to your...
Are we fed up of them all? by Matthew Appleby
Are gardens and gardeners being well served by the garden media? Are we fed up of seeing the same old faces, giving us the same old snowdrops every week? Here’s Matthew Appleby’s opinion about it. Happy Christmas, everyone!! Anne Wareham, editor. Matthew...Sissinghurst: monochromatic colour schemes, by Abbie Jury
“All the same, I cannot help hoping that the great ghostly barn-owl will sweep silently across a pale garden, next summer, in the twilight – the pale garden that I am now planting, under the first flakes of snow.” Vita Sackville-West from ‘In...Gold at the Olympic Park by Bridget Rosewell
Meadows now cover a multitude of sins – or at least, the term ‘meadow’ does. All part of the ‘naturalistic’ trend (see Michael King’s post and Sarah Price telling you how to do it at home here) Bridget Rosewell takes a look here at...Three views of the RHS by Elizabeth Musgrave
Apologies – this one has jumped the queue.. (nothing to do with me overlooking what’s on my schedule, of course..) Does the RHS offer anything which meets the needs of the thinkingardener? Elizabeth Musgrave gives that some thought.. Anne Wareham, editor...
If not spectacle, what? by Tristan Gregory
Last week Tristan Gregory proposed that we may need respite from spectacle. (see ‘Spectacle or not’) This week he continues his theme by discussing what might come next.. Anne Wareham, editor Tristan Gregory: In a previous piece I made a case for adapting...Spectacle – or not? by Tristan Gregory
Here are thoughts about how people in the past created gardens to offer them respite from the pressures and anxieties of their age, and opens the question about whether we might do the same. It’s the first of a two parter, but this part stands alone well enough....An interesting book review by Abbie Jury
I haven’t named the book which is the subject of this review yet on purpose. Most of our readers are still from the UK so you might assume this book will not be especially interesting to you. But I think the review may be. It raises an issue which has bothered...Painswick Rococo Garden – 21 images from the Art in the Garden exhibition by Anne Wareham
I cannot claim this as a review – rather the editor’s privilege to produce a brief, pictorial indication of what is to be seen at this exhibition, which we visited in the drizzle on the 31st July. I have a pile up of material waiting to be published here...
Hampton Court Health Warnings by Helen Gazeley.
“Most artists aren’t that philosophical or conceptual. They’re just artists who work within a certain style and if you took their so-called concept into a 6th form debating society, it would be ripped to shreds.” Grayson Perry, RSA Journal, Autumn 2008. Quite. This...
Lagerfeld Rules – should he ever turn his attention to gardening, by Abbie Jury
I love the way thinkingardens reaches across the world. My ambition is to become truly international, with the best from every continent..Well, it sounds so glamorous. A bit like Karl Lagerfeld, perhaps? So, recently I ‘met’ Abbie Jury, an excellent writer...
Chelsea 2012 by Anne Wareham
I did my usual for Chelsea – asked people I met on Press Day a question I thought would be of interest to thinkingardeners. Less celebrities this time. All pictures by Charles Hawes, but the unnamed person in them, while bearing a passing resemblance to me, is...
Recent Posts from: Veddw
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. […]
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.
