The January man he goes around in woollen coat and boots of leather (1) The year begins with weather warnings. Frost settles into the garden ground and doesn’t move. Motivation is low. Piles of hazel thinnings lay unsorted or trimmed. Tall herbaceous plants, long past the ‘interesting in winter’ stage need cutting back. Leaves areContinue reading “In and around the garden: some fragments from January”
Category Archives: Daily observation
A walk by the Solway Firth
With my teenage daughter, on the second day of January 2025. We arrive at Southerness lighthouse, on the Solway shore. The tide is just on the ebb. To our right we can paddle through lapping waters and reach the track beyond. Here we pass huge boulders of white granite, barricaded to protect the properties above.Continue reading “A walk by the Solway Firth”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Zen influences
On a spring break this year at a well known family resort, I noticed that adjacent to the ‘spa’ and overlooked from the heated recliners was something called a ‘Zen garden’. I have to say I was quite taken by it and for some months pondered how something similar might be created in Dumfriesshire. Yes,Continue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Zen influences”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Year ending
It’s always a delight to see these catkins as the year is ending. Bright, shining, moving in the breeze, they are an inspiration for the year ahead. But elsewhere in the Dumfriesshire Garden there are still plenty of reminders of the year that’s coming to a close. The pictures below also have their own beauty,Continue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Year ending”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Winter and its tasks
The tasks of winter in the garden, it seems to me, are twofold. On the one hand there are practical things that need our attention. Pruning out the hazels, tidying up the rose arch and the bentwood hornbeam tunnels. There is some strimming to be done in the longer grass where daffodils and narcissi willContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Winter and its tasks”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Uninvited guests
For a place that is largely unfenced and merges seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, the Dumfriesshire Garden has been mercifully free of serious damage by rabbits and deer. Certainly the former have been scarce in numbers in recent years, but the latter are seen regularly in the nearby woods and fields and do occasionally visitContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Uninvited guests”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Moss
In the Dumfriesshire Garden I am surrounded by something special and important, but until recently I paid it little attention. Moss. Ubiquitous in a damp climate like ours. Taking many forms from close clinging to pin cushion plump. From slatey grey to deep forest green. Ubiquitous. Largely ignored. Settled and colonising the tops of stoneContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Moss”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Labyrinth
The Dumfriesshire Garden turf labyrinth was first laid out in summer 2020. To commemorate the suffering of those caught up in the Beirut fire that August, I planted a tiny Cedar of Lebanon at its centre. Since then, the simple three circle labyrinth has brought much reward in good times, and consolation in darker moments.Continue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Labyrinth”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Keeping on top of things
The Dumfriesshire Garden in south west Scotland started as a modest border at the back of a farm building that was under renovation as a home. Paradoxically, it began in the poorest piece of ground imaginable, where a thin layer of soil sat on top of bedrock. Gradually the scope of the garden extended, containedContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Keeping on top of things”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Irises
‘Beware of gardeners bearing plants!’ I was once told. Yet that experience more or less accounts for the largest group of irises in the Dumfriesshire Garden, and none the worse for that in my view. The source of the Iris Siberica seen here was the contents of a couple of carrier bags, plants just pastContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Irises”
Quotidian 