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”
Category Archives: Looking back on the year
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: Visiting other gardens
I’m not an assiduous visitor of gardens, though I do have my favourites, such as Hidcote Manor in the Cotswolds (seen here in the featured image), which we head to at every opportunity. Visiting any garden is always a chance to garner new ideas and inspirations and maybe to bring them home for local adaptation.Continue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Visiting other gardens”
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: Jack in the Pulpit
When I first acquired my greenhouse a few years ago, I was soon drawn into the pleasure of growing what I considered to be more exotic plants, under glass. The first of these was Arisaema Candidissimum, with which I had considerable success, as can be seen here in the top image. I came across aContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Jack in the Pulpit”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Early arrivals
Once things begin to move in the early season garden, every day can bring the pleasure of a new arrival. After a chilly spell, or perhaps at the end of days of false hopes, suddenly something is poking up through the leaf mould in the borders, with a clear message: Spring is round the corner.Continue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Early arrivals”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Cammasias and Cosmos
These two favourites in the Dumfriesshire Garden couldn’t be more contrasting. One perennial, one annual. One lover of the semi-damp of the arboretum. The other more at home in a sunny, drier border. One first planted as bulbs that gradually bulk up. The other beginning life each year in a seed tray, before potting onContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Cammasias and Cosmos”
An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Borders
There are seven distinct borders in my Dumfriesshire Garden. How I allowed this to happen, I do not know. When all is going well in ‘borderland’, there is always the temptation, if you have the space, to add something more. So here’s a brief tour of the borders, in what I mostly consider a belowContinue reading “An A-Z of 2024 in the garden: Borders”
Catkins at New Year
Towards the end of last winter, this hazel bush was pruned hard and the older stems carefully removed. The treatment appears to have been beneficial, and the show of catkins now is like none it has produced before. The benefits of the right intervention at the right time! On the afternoon of Hogmanay, the sun appearedContinue reading “Catkins at New Year”
Epiphanies and Robberies Chapter 12: The Advent of New Ways of Being
Whilst Andrew nurses a bad cold, Anne-Marie and Caitlin are Christmas shopping, and Michael is discovering a new-found enthusiasm for things culinary. Meanwhile the art robbers are awaiting sentence following their guilty plea and DC Harris makes arrangements for the safe return of the stolen goods. On the night of the Winter Solstice, The MaxwellContinue reading “Epiphanies and Robberies Chapter 12: The Advent of New Ways of Being”
Quotidian 