Kate's Cuttings

This winter flowering virburnum looks and smell goregous right now.  Seasons greetings to you all and here's to a happier and healthier 2022. Read more…

The garden in December can be a rather desolate place, but it needn’t be. Obviously, it can’t have the freshness and prettiness of Spring or the rampant colour of Summer. But there are some treasures that come into their own over the winter months, and some of them add that important dimension, a lovely scent. One of my favourites is the Winter Flowering Virburnum ( see January 2022), sometimes sold with its old name of V.Fragrans.  Virburnums are gentle, unassuming plants but many have the advantage of coming into flower when there is not too much competition and flowering over a long p... Read more…

Stopping the use of peat has hit the media again – I guess it never went away and it’s clear how damaging its extraction is to the planet now.  Monty Don tweeted this last month: ‘Some gardeners are missing the point: It really doesn’t matter how well plants in your garden grow or do not grow, no plants or garden justify the use of peat. Ever. We must therefore adapt- even if that means a loss of quality (which I firmly believe is not the case)’ I must admit I found the early substitutes for peat based compost were disappointing. More recently though they’re much better.  When I’m making... Read more…

October means bulbs!  Perusing the catalogues, planning where to put them and imagining the wonderful show next Spring is part of the joy of being a gardener for me.  This year I’ve tried something a bit different.  We had a water feature with a little waterfall and a pond powered by a mini solar panel that never really worked and always got clogged up with leaves and other random debris.  So we filled it in and tried to make a bog garden out of it.  That didn’t work either, I think we made too many drainage holes in the bottom!  So plan C is now underway. I have ordered some bulbs with ... Read more…

Some ideas for keeping the garden colourful as summer slips away..... Read more…

The vegetable patch has been more productive this year and the elephant garlic in particular is a real success.  It tastes like mild garlic but is actually more closely related to leeks rather than ‘proper’ garlic.  We roast it in the oven for about 40 minutes and the huge cloves are delicious, soft, and creamy and a perfect match for some potato wedges or in with other vegetables. I planted the garlic last Autumn with a generous handful of grit for each bulblet to ensure decent drainage in our very heavy clay soil. The first bulb was harvested mid-July.  I have tried planting garlic in ... Read more…

There has been a gorgeous display of ox eye daisies on the corner of Cotgrave Road and Cotgrave Lane of late (see photo mid June).  A classic sunny meadow resident, it shines clear and bright in the sunshine, lifting the spirits.  It is the kind of daisy a child might draw, simple, and just lovely. It makes me so jealous: I bought a special pack of seeds from Great Dixter Nurseries. A very few germinated and even fewer survived my clumsy pricking out and planting in our little meadow.  Have they thrived? No. Is that bloomin’ fair: No. And to add insult to injury there are a huge bunch of... Read more…

Over the last few years we’ve accumulated quite a decent collection of roses and their time is coming! Here are some of my favourites: The earliest is ‘Canary Bird’.  It is a shrub rose and usually only flowers once, but it is a sight to behold with its bright lemon, single flowers and pretty fern like leaves that are unusual for a rose.  We have it hanging over a low wall at the front of the garden.  ‘Adelaide  d’Orleans ‘ is a rambler, we have it growing through an old apple tree. The clusters of little buds are pink, opening to white, they cascade down to produce a weeping effect.  Fo... Read more…

At this time of year the vibrant greens in our gardens, parks and hedgerows sing out, lifting our spirits. Green is such an important colour and many gardeners prefer to keep with the different shades and shapes of green plants rather than using the whole colour palette. It can look amazing, even jungle like.  We’ve got a green and white theme running down one side of our garden that comes into its own in early spring and continues well into summer. The succession is: hardy cyclamen, snowdrops, white crocus if we can keep the mice off them, white daffodils (Thalia), Solomon’s seal,  lily... Read more…

The Lent Lillies have been gorgeous this year (see photo).  This is the dainty little daffodil naturalised in Britain, Narcissus pseudonarcissus.  She graces some of our woodlands by gently seeding around in elegant little drifts. They have taken at least 10 years to settle in well in our little meadow under the silver birches, but they really do look at home now. The bigger, bolder hybrids have their place, and we have those too here at Charnwood.   But this is a good one if you prefer a more gentle, natural look. Not that it is really natural of course. If you read my column regularly ... Read more…