Kate's Cuttings

Now is a good time to take stock in the garden – what worked well, what didn’t, were there any gaps in the borders that need planning for more carefully? I’m heavily into succession planning so there is colour in as many places as possible all year. But it is hard to get it right all, or even most of the time, so here are some of my tips to keep your garden in good order with some colour all season next year: • Order a good number of spring bulbs: a decent show is much better that a few dotted around. I get mine from de Jager, but there are plenty of options on line and in the shops. ... Read more…

In June we had a week’s holiday in the Ashdown Forest. I made my usual pilgrimage to Great Dixter, which was looking fantastic, full of vibrant colour that makes you feel immersed rather than a mere spectator. The meadow was past its colourful best but still very beautiful with soft pink and beige grasses taking over from the early summer wildflowers. Just a few orchids were still evident, and wild blue geranium dotted about . For sheer contrast I visited Nymans. Also very beautiful but very tidy, almost manicured in places, the typical National Trust style of lovely colour themed plan... Read more…

From left to right: Celias pink buddleia, Inula magnifica, pink clematis scrambling through a myrtle, stachys with red sedum. Read more…

It’s easy at this time of year to appreciate the gorgeous flowers in our gardens. Roses, clematis, annuals such as Cosmos and Nicotiana to name a few are looking lovely right now and give our eyes and noses a visual and fragrant treat. So I thought I’d spare a thought to those plants that give us a longer term back bone to our beds and borders, foliage plants that provide a much needed foil to all that bright colour. It’s been said about the white garden at Sissinghurst that it’s not just a white garden, and that is its strength. That’s because it also has grey and green leaves in abund... Read more…

At the time of writing this – mid May – the oriental poppies are coming into bud. They are so quickly over I vow every year to look them out every day to make sure I enjoy every minute of their short lives. My best laid plans to stake them properly and effectively early in May have been forgotten as usual ; the best way when I have got round to it is to use brushwood stuck into the ground around and between them. It disappears as the poppies grow up and looks more natural than those green wirey jobs. Oriental poppies are of the perennial, herbaceous variety. That means they come up every... Read more…

A new friend walked round ‘Charnwood’ with me in March and kindly commented on how she appreciated the naturalistic style of planting; ‘a woodland garden’ was her description. Those of you who read this column regularly will know that this is a big compliment – I am not in the ‘neat’ or ‘formal’ garden fan club. That’s not to say that, if you like it neat, I am right and you are wrong; one of the fun things about gardening is that we all do it in different ways. Not all of us are verging on being obsessive about plants like me; most of you are much better balanced human beings. The trick... Read more…

Easter means primroses, cowslips and violets to me. Daffodils too, but I have written many times about those fab bulbs, so it’s the first two lovelies I am going to wax lyrical about this time. The name ‘Primula veris’, the cowslip, appeared in literature as a remedy as far back as 1101. Leonardo da Vinci was supposed to have found their leaves tasty – I don’t recommend you try that at home! The common primrose Primula vulgaris has also been around for centuries, and the two often cross pollinate to make what is commonly called the false oxlip, P. variabilis. It’s is a big family, also ... Read more…

I’ve a friend who is really excited as she is about to take custody of an allotment. You will know if you read this column regularly that I’m no Monty Don when it comes to vegetable gardening, but when she asked for advice I suggested two things I could not be without in any garden: compost bins and fruit. We share our garden with too many rabbits to grow many leafy crops! Fruit first – we’ve got raspberries and redcurrants at Charnwood as well as apples, pears, gages and plums. We even have a Medlar – a good tree for a small garden with pretty white flowers and weird but fascinating ... Read more…

I hope you gardeners have some good, strong gloves, a warm coat, sharp secateurs and a compost bin empty and ready to be filled. Between now and April is the time to get out there and get ready for the rest of the year; time spent now is always worthwhile and saves more work later on. Here are a few jobs to get you going: • Wisteria should be hard pruned now. If you have an already established framework of stems, make sure they are well tied in and cut back each branch to 2 or 3 buds (see photo). It sounds drastic, but you will be rewarded with more flowers. Do it in a mild spell and gi... Read more…

Our little woodland area is looking lovely at the moment with many small clumps of hardy cyclamen sprinkled around in pink and white. There are precious few flowers around at this time of year so they are a very welcome sight. There are two different kinds of hardy cyclamen common in our gardens. The one out now is usually C. hederifolium (pictured)– literally ‘with leaves like ivy’. Later on the pretty pink and white flowers of C. Coum arrive, so you can have cyclamen in flower from autumn through to early spring. Their favourite spot is in shade underneath trees and shrubs where ther... Read more…