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The unbearable sweetness of hyacinths
I’ve spent the last few days experimenting with the right place for these forced hyacinths, which went into pots last autumn. On the desk was too much. In the windowsill was too much. At the opposite...
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In bulbs we trust
It’s not happened yet, but I can feel that the bulb lust will soon be upon me. I work my tiny garden intensively and only manage to get four season colour into the border by packing in bulbs among...
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It’s beginning to look a lot like gardening
It was pretty awful to end the gardening year with a blizzard on 26 November. Last year it snowed for a month starting just before Christmas Eve, and I thought that was bad. We’ve now had 2 feet of...
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I need late autumn interest in the garden — dahlias need not apply
Novemberish gales are blowing the September garden sideways and making me think prematurely about mulching, clearing and cozying in. The open wire grille I put down to keep leaves out of the pond has...
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Into the darkness with the winter garden
The crispness of winter outlines in the garden and the dramatic sideways sunlight can make December a cheerful time outside, but the weeks of afternoon darkness ahead are never a happy prospect. In the...
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How I forced hyacinths in time for Christmas
This is the first year I have managed to force sweetly scented hyacinths in time for Christmas. Here’s how I did it: I bought the bulbs for forcing as soon as they became available in late August...
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SWG002 Early February in a Scottish cottage garden
Welcome to the latest Stopwatch Gardener podcast, where I take a sunny February walk around the garden. If you use iTunes, there’s a link to subscribe at the bottom of this blog, or you can sign up in...
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SWG003 Mid February in a Scottish cottage garden
Welcome to the latest Stopwatch Gardener podcast, where I take a mid-February walk around the garden. In this episode I’m looking at a creeping phlox, dreaming of meconopsis, and announcing my 2014...
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Iris reticulata come fast and disappear even faster
I almost didn’t bother taking this photograph. The cluster of iris reticulata outside my back door was a miracle the day it first bloomed, but almost immediately I began taking it for granted, rushing...
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Scottish garden in January
It’s January again in our part of Scotland, but the suspended, withered state of the garden doesn’t bother me as much this year, for some reason. Maybe because, unlike the state of the world, I know...
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