Kate's Cuttings

One really good plant for late summer colour is Salvia. This is the same family as the sage we use in cooking, but it is a vast genus. I’m not so keen on the dumpy little bedding ones that you see in bright colours, often set out in more formal planting schemes. I’m talking about the perennial salvias. Many are tender, originating in Mexico, so need to be given frost free shelter over the winter. I have a gorgeous red flowered one, its flowers look like they are made out of velvet. I keep it in a pot so I can pop it in the greenhouse, it has survived and thrived like that for a couple o... Read more…

Many years ago I bought a small pot of a pretty little blue plant called Pratia pedunculata. A member of the campanula family, it has that gorgeous soft sky blue you seldom find in flowers. This one is very low growing, only around one or two centimetres (less than an inch in old money). I I bought it to soften the edge of a pond. The aforementioned pond is now well gone, but while I wasn’t paying attention the little monkey of a plant crept slowly but determinedly towards the grass. Incidentally I now longer use the term ‘lawn’ to describe the bits Peter does on the ride on mower. It i... Read more…

It’s our 40th wedding anniversary this month. Can’t believe it really. I now know my lovely old Dad was spot on when he told me many years ago that the older you get the quicker the time flies by. Peter has just been playing some 70s music including Barclay James Harvest on a proper long playing record, just two tracks per side of 20 minutes, fab. We had Cat Stevens (as he was called then) ‘Morning has Broken’ as part of our wedding service as did many of our mates who got married in the mid seventies. Takes you back. I had mock orange blossom in my hair when I got married. It wilted a b... Read more…

Last month I spent a lovely couple of days with a mate visiting gardens down south. We planned to see two gardens specifically, Sissinghurst and Great Dixter. They are quite different in style – Sissinghurst is much more manicured, each ‘garden room’ clearly delineated with a theme and a complementary colour theme – the White Garden, the Lime Walk, The Purple border. Dixters’ design is a bit more fluid, planted more densely and with colours that sing out in contrast to shock as well as impress. But both had a thing or two to teach us about how to plant and display plants. Some lessons... Read more…

I love the garden in April. So much promise, masses of green shoots and buds, all fresh and new, not too many weeds, the clocks have moved on so the light evenings are longer, wonderful. Gardening books are a passion of mine, I’ve often got my nose in one, sometimes when I’m supposed to be doing other things, especially cleaning. So this month, I’m taking you through a journey through some of my bookshelves to see what other, more eloquent and knowledgeable gardeners (surely not I hear you cry?) have said at this time of year: ‘I have just seen the most beautiful flowering tree in my l... Read more…

March is the best month to get out into the garden. Time spent now will pay huge dividends later in the year. Halt your gym membership, don your wellies and pick up your border fork! Here are a few suggestions: • Weed your borders. Perennial weeds such as dandelions and bindweed need to be dug up carefully and put in your green bin or burned. If you leave a tiny bit of root, they will come back. Annual weeds such as chickweed are a pain, but are easy to pull up or hoe. Once clear, give the area a good mulch with bark chippings, gravel or better still compost to prevent seedlings from... Read more…

You don’t need me to tell you the weather has been bonkers this winter. I can remember some odd flowering companions in the past, but I have never had snowdrops, daffodils, tender salvias from Mexico and delphiniums all out at the same time. See the photo taken on 9 January. It’s not a magnificent specimen I grant you, but it is a delphinium flower spike nevertheless. The weird weather has caused me a dilemma. Peter bought me 40 bags of beautiful, well rotted manure for Christmas*. I know not every wife would welcome bags of horse s**t for Christma from her husband, but it made me very ... Read more…

After really unseasonal weather, snow! Have you ever seen snow on a delphinium before? Read more…

In October we visited a National Trust property newly opened in Markfield, just outside Loughborough called Stoneywell. It is really unusual, partly because of the viewing arrangements. Parking is in a field about half a mile away, and you get ferried to it by minibus. You then have a guided tour of this small but fascinating place. It was owned by the Gimson family, one of whom lived it until very recently. It is described as Arts and Crafts, all the furniture and decorations are very much in that style, so it has a light and airy, rather peaceful atmosphere. The house itself is a shor... Read more…

This is the time of year I wish I’d planted more for autumn and winter interest. A bit of forward planning goes a long way in the garden (and elsewhere I guess!) but it’s hard when the season is 12 months long and varies hugely depending on the weather, rampaging wildlife and our lack of spare time and energy. Hey ho. Having said that we do have some late season stars here at Charnwood. One I’m gazing at right now is the dwarf Japanese Cherry, grown up name Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’. If you read this column regularly you may be tired of my plugs for this lovely small tree, but I ask ... Read more…