Kate's Cuttings

It’s my birthday this month and I really wish I was born at a time when the weather is better. To be sitting outside in the sun with a glass of something cold and white to celebrate yet another year passed, with the bees buzzing and the birds singing with the smell of mown grass and summer flowers in the air would be wonderful right now. Peter and I (with Gibbs the dog of course)  have been known to enjoy a barbeque with our coats on to squeeze the absolute last warm ray of sunshine out of the year, but that is unlikely to happen again for a bit. And I’m not even going to mention tier tw... Read more…

One of my favourite ever lines in a TV drama was when Maggie Smith, playing a vicar’s wife in Alan Bennett’s excellent ‘Talking Heads’ uttered bitterly: ‘If you think squash is a competitive sport, you should try flowering arranging’. My Mum was a keen and very skilled arranger of flowers so I have witnessed this from the sidelines, albeit a few years ago now. The same can be said of many pastimes, and I admit that gardening is one of them. In a kindly way though. I’m a self-confessed obsessive plantswoman and a fair bit of plant snobbery is contained in that description of me.  How does... Read more…

We’ve a beautiful fig tree at the front of the house and this year it has been laden with fruit. Ours is a ‘Brown Turkey’, reliably hardy and a reliable cropper. Getting the right spot to plant seems to be key; she needs somewhere sunny and sheltered and in not too rich soil. If you feed it too much you will get beautiful leaves but no fruit. I’ve struggled to find a really good pruning guide, so it gets a good old cut back about now and it seems happy. You will need space: ours before pruning stands at about 4 metres high and 3m wide so we’re going to have to get the ladder out to get a... Read more…

I love trying out plant combinations, to see what makes a good, long lasting display. Here are some of the midsummer combos that have worked for me: Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and the tall yellow Inula magnifica. The bright, almost florescent red of the Crocosmia contrasts well with the flamboyant yellow daisies of the inula, and they both grow lustily and tall at the back of the border; ·         Roses underplanted with a scrambly hardy geranium. I’ve a border with pink and red roses with a deep,  almost magenta  pink geranium, name long forgotten. The geranium covers the rather boring bits a... Read more…

Those of you who read my gardening column regularly may know I’m a keen composter. Some (like Peter) would say even an obsessive compost anorak. It is just lovely stuff, great fun to make, free of charge, saves an expensive gym membership fee* and is wonderful for the health and vitality of your plants. Our soil here is really heavy clay; compost helps to break it up and make it easier to work so I dig it in by the barrow load when I plant something new.  It can contain a fair few weeds but I can live with that given its benefits and there is always the hoe. The rain will have made your ... Read more…

Never have we felt so lucky and privileged to have a big garden than we have in recent weeks. I have an elderly cousin in poor health who lives in a tiny flat in Leicestershire;  she lonely and climbing up the walls. My heart goes out to people in that position. So Peter and I have been spending a lot of time in our own oasis of calm and as a result the garden has never looked better.  The wisteria has been stunning , clematis are coming into their own and our peonies are looking good, if only for a short while. If you indulge in social media, Peter has been posting photos on Facebook @p... Read more…

Alliums have been lovely this year. Such easy and generous plants, their only vice here is to multiply too much! This is the most vivid of all, aptly named 'Purple Sensation'. Read more…

I’ve been honing my pruning skills. As with many things in life, I’ve learned that if you read up on it, get the right tools and have a go, it’s not hard. I’m especially proud of my winter flowering Viburnum, the one with the beautifully scented pink flowers: they smell of sweet almond to me. I cut the really old wood down to the ground and removed unhealthy or crossing branches. Then it had a gentle prune to get it into a decent shape and a feed and mulch. Please don’t just get the hedge trimmers to lob off the top of your early spring flowering shrubs, you will end up with a dumpy, con... Read more…

It’s 16 February and most of our front garden is under water. Some people will be undergoing the misery and destruction of their houses being flooding yet again. I can’t imagine how devastating it must be. On a much, much  less serious note, our gardens are suffering too. Bulbs hate being waterlogged and can rot, trees in boggy areas have their roots in water and end up not being able to breathe and thrive, grey leaved plants hailing from hotter countries sulk and die. It is easy to get despondent. But plants are amazingly resilient. When we had our pond refurbished, a large skip sat rig... Read more…

It’s that time of year when the catalogues and emails come to us gardeners thick and fast. All of them are trying to seduce us with their gorgeous photos of healthy, productive and/or floriferous goodies to plant and sow in time for the summer. Here’s my run down of the crop: De Jager are my go-to bulb specialists and have been for several years. They have a good range, the quality is excellent and their prices reasonable if you buy in quantity. The Spring 2020 wholesale catalogue has a lovely range of lilies. To give you an idea of cost you can get 25 Regale lilies for £26.35 plus VAT. ... Read more…