Staying in one place: an interview with the naturalist Barbara Mearns

Having first come to the Nithsdale parish of Kirkmahoe in 1997, it’s a joy to still be getting to know people around here with extraordinary interests, passions and talents. Barbara Mearns is one such person. We live just a couple of miles apart but until this year we had only met a few times, althoughContinue reading “Staying in one place: an interview with the naturalist Barbara Mearns”

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”