Veg Plotting

Monty Don in Phoenix, Arizona; Lotusland, California; and Monty in Central Park, New York. © Derry Moore.  What is an American Garden? asks Monty Don in the introduction to this lavish volume. The images above give us a clue to his unsurprising conclusion: America is simply too vast. The varied landscapes, climate, and people are too mind bogglingly wide to provide a definitive answer.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC. © Derry Moore That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to find out and I'm pleased Monty Don did in both his TV series in January, and now in the follow-up book published earlier this week. I was due to visit America again for the latest Garden Bloggers' Fling , but of course Covid-19 put those plans on hold. It's great to do that from my armchair instead, especially as one of the gardens featured - The Lurie in Chicago - is one I was due to visit on my way to Wisconsin. Another garden - Dumbarton Oaks - was closed when I visited Washington DC in 2017, so I...

I'm a little late with my #NationalGardeningWeek post this year because my head's been full of making it happen for other people. We've put together cards and some small gifts for all our WI members this week and I suggested we give everyone some seeds to grow, so our gift keeps on giving. Now I'd like to say the timing was all planned, but actually serendipity played a huge part 😉 Luckily my stash had enough 'Russian Giant' seeds for us to have a tallest sunflower competition, and just one packet of lettuce 'Merveille des Quatre Saisons' yielded around 1500 seeds (the packet said  approx 900 ) to divvy up. Everything was duly delivered yesterday in the sunshine and the response from everyone is full of smiles. Many sowed their seeds yesterday, so I'm playing catch up already. My friend Judy from Botanical Interests * often says 'It all starts with a seed'. In these strange lockdown times, I'm happy to add they also help to sus...

Sometimes a plant gets under your skin; one to be pursued no matter how hard the chase might be. Hesperaloe parviflora  - aka Red Yucca - proved to be such a plant for my garden. I first came across it in Austin at the Garden Bloggers Fling last year . It's a native plant to Texas and was found pretty much in everyone's garden; also at the gorgeous organic nursery we visited in the rain; and thanks to the legacy of Lady Bird Johnson and the wonderful work of the Wildflower Center which bears her name, it's seen along all the roads and freeways around the city. Of course it's a key plant for xeriscaping , its tough agave-like rosette leaves - without the skin piercing spikes and with intriguing 'stringy bits' (my technical term) - are ideally adapted for the harsh Texan conditions and whilst I'd mentally named it my plant of the Fling, with a sigh of regret I'd also consigned it to the 'not suitable for my garden' pile of potential pla...

In Denver I was asked why I come to the Garden Bloggers' Fling, especially as UK gardening is held in great esteem in the USA. Well, there's always the pull of seeing good friends and interesting places, plus I still have lots to learn and my visit was inspirational. Sometimes you have to get away from your own place to see things more clearly. Here are some of my key points from this year - many thanks to the organisers of this year's Fling and to all of the gardeners and organisations who made us so welcome. Make an entrance... This view has provided much food for thought since I've got back. I've seen large matching pots in doorways at many a Fling before, but these were exceptional. I have pots at my door too, but they don't match and they don't bring the front garden's planting nearer the front door. It's something to bear in mind as I plan my new front garden. Here's a view which changed my plans for my front garden revamp. I...

I'm back from a fabulous week spent in Denver at this year's Garden Bloggers Fling . The gardens - as usual - were amazing, but many of us found other stars of the show in the shape of the ever present mountain views and huge skies over the plains we passed through. It's a deceptive landscape because the flatter looking land hides the fact we were at an altitude of over 5,000 feet. Now I'm back I can understand the benefits of living that high: my regular Zumba class yesterday felt much easier and I could work harder without getting puffed! This is a view from one of the private gardens we visited in the Boulder area and illustrates perfectly the importance of using the borrowed view in garden design. The owners of this property and many more we saw ensured they made the best of their natural resources, both in terms of scenery and local geology. You can see the clouds building up over the mountains which brought rumbles of thunder in the afternoon and just...

I'm back from a wonderful week in Austin where the Garden Bloggers Fling was held this year. We saw plenty of amazing gardens, and a few extra days plus our downtown location meant there was plenty of time to see what else the city has to offer. It's the Fling's 10th anniversary this year, and it was apt to return to where it all began, though in quite a different format to the first time. I was struck by the incredible hospitality of our hosts, who opened their homes to us pre, during and post Fling. Pam deserves a special mention as she not only had 90 Flingers visit her garden, she also broke away from her preparations to take Barbara and I on a tour of some of the key sights of the city. It was great to see Austin through her eyes and here's her take on our trip together. The photo shows a view from Mount Bonnell , Austin's highest point with great views over the city, Lake Austin and the surrounding hills. I chose this photo because it shows some of ...

A huge pot plus a large-leaved Heuchera makes a striking statement in Linda Hostetler's Viginian garden I've always been struck by the bold use of pots at the gardens visited on previous Garden Bloggers' Flings and this year was another visual feast. The planting combinations are varied and exceptional, often using plants - such as coleus - I've dismissed previously as not my 'thing'. Unlike some Fling bloggers*, I have only a few photos to show what I've liked and learned from this year's trip. Instead, I've realised sights like the one above have influenced the simple summer pots I've put together since I got back. I've started on a makeover of my front garden and one of the tiny baby steps along that path is to replace the multitude of small pots on the ugly telephone junction box at the very front. I don't usually go for plastic with my pots, but I found this one more attractive to usual. Besides, I need to keep things rel...

Just to prove I really was there - a lovely photo of Hillwood with me for scale taken by my friend  Barbara   It's taken me a while to get round to writing about the wonders of this year's Garden Bloggers' Fling , primarily because I don't have photos for most of it. It means lots of the coverage I'd planned from all but the last day won't be blogged, or I'll use post-Fling photos instead. I got home from a wonderful holiday all fired up to tell you all about it, loaded up my SD Cards in readiness... then found all my photos from the first 5 days of our holiday were missing. I know they were there originally because I showed some of them to NAH, but even his prowess with SD recovery programs failed to find even a ghost of an original photo. This is what I think happened... On Fling Day 2 I arrived at our first garden ( this wonderful one , full of neat little touches and that bench in Pam's blog post was a shoe-in for a Friday Bench   on'...

The green wall at Longo's supermarket in downtown Toronto The first garden photograph I took at the Garden Bloggers Fling in Toronto last year was before the Fling had even started. NAH and I had gone in search of a healthy breakfast at the supermarket close to our hotel, where we found the fresh fruit and yoghurt as expected. Then on the way to the checkout, the totally unexpected hove into view. Until then I'd thought green aka living walls were the sole preserve of more upmarket establishments - like the one at the Athenaeum hotel I visited last year - rather than everyday supermarkets. I think it's a wonderful way of thanking customers for their visit and it gave us something pleasant to look at whilst we waited at the checkout. It was the first time I'd seen one indoors too. This one's in the supermarket's basement - a surprising location until you realise a lot of shopping in Toronto is conducted underground owing to Canada's severe winters....

Seen at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, USA in 2014. You'll find another of my views of the garden  here . The rest of Dorothy Gurney's poem - God's Garden is read by Emma Fielding in the YouTube video below. This entry also says there's a missing stanza in the reading, which goes after the verse I've featured above. Here's the lin k if the embedded version doesn't load.

The Hugh Garner Housing Co-Operative from the communal garden - with not a clue to the delights above Many of the green roofs we hear about in the UK tend to be at the high end of the market, such as the Sky Garden in London. However, my visit to Toronto's  Hugh Garner Housing Co-Operative   highlighted the possibilities for any housing development seen in our towns and cities. View towards Toronto's iconic CN Tower It wasn't just a roof full of sedums either; this scheme showcases how a fantastic communal resource can be achieved, suitable for both entertaining and quiet relaxation, with an amazing view. I was delighted to meet Amanda from Cooking in Someone Else's Kitchen at last I learnt so much during my time in Toronto which deserves to be blogged about, but this garden was the one which really touched both my head and heart. I nearly burst into tears of rage at the time as the UK doesn't have the kind of legislation Toronto has had since ...

Some of you may be aware I have a photography blog called Sign of the Times , where I regularly publish photos of benches I've found on my travels. Here's a selection of 17 my favourite garden-related finds for 2015; some of them have their debut here on the internet for the first time.   Benches from Michelle Chapman The slideshow has lots of extra information and links to websites where the benches reside. Here's a collage of 16 of the 17 benches if you'd prefer a quick look instead. Click on the picture to enlarge if needed. Matt  kindly nominated his favourite in the Comments, what's yours?

Pity the poor gardener who kindly guided us around the wonderful iris collection in the Laking Garden at The Royal Botanical Gardens  (RBG) near Toronto. The star attraction at the time was a turtle laying her eggs in the garden's soft fertile earth, so he didn't stand a chance while a gaggle of garden bloggers tried to catch the moment when another egg plopped into the hole. Apparently this is a regular occurrence in June, which merits a warning on the garden's page on the RBG website. Luckily the turtle was unfazed with her new found stardom and quietly carried on with her business. A staff member tends the collection Our quest for egg laying pictures sated, it was time to explore the collection of hundreds of irises on display, showcasing cultivars from this and the last century. As you can see, our timing was just right as there was a colourful tapestry of blooms on offer. Most of these are laid out in chronological order, so it's easy to see how breedi...