A month of blog loving : Head Gardeners' Blogs

For Emma Cooper, April has been #bloglove month, in which she set herself (and anyone else brave enough) the challenge of visiting and commenting on five blogs a day, and then reporting back. I, you will notice, failed miserably to rise to it. Vegplotting managed her own, less intense, approach, and both are well worth visiting to discover parts of the garden blogosphere that you might not yet have encountered.

For some time, I've been rounding up blogs by Those in Charge - head gardeners and their ilk. They vary considerably. Some, you feel, may possibly be written under duress, dashed off at the end of the day to satisfy the marketing executive, and quite a few have lapsed (no doubt when the marketing attention moved elsewhere). Others, like those below, build a fascinating glimpse of life at the hard end of the hoe.  Photographs feature strongly and the satisfaction gained from their daily work is palpable.

The Tattooed Gardener is by the Head Gardener of Trinity College, that particularly well-endowed Cambridge institution. Delightfully idiosyncratic, the blog not only carries lots of information on plants (with plenty of pictures), but imparts information on flowery tattoos and - a particular love of the writer - will brush up your knowledge of heavy metal and rock in almost every post (how long did I waste following the YouTube links?)

Buried within the website of Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden ("Ireland's most romantic castle") is Head Gardener, Anja Gohlke's monthly round-up of what's been happening, a temptation to visit Connemara.

Gary Webb, Head of Grounds at Compton Verney, Warks, the house and garden with an emphasis on art, tends 120 acres designed by Capability Brown. He's worked in the heritage environment for a long time and his blogging talents have just landed him on the blogging team of Heritage Open Days. Gary also tweets: @garywebb1.

Fulham Palace's informative monthly garden blog (recently been taken over by Acting Head Gardener Lindsay Schuman while her boss, Lucy Hart, is on maternity leave) has plenty of photos and interesting detail of the daily tasks of running a large estate of many parts.

Head Gardener Harriet Rycroft runs the Whichford Pottery gardens and writes Potting Up. This is a outsize clue to the blog's angle, as everything is grown in the pottery's pots. It's an easy-going look at what works and what doesn't and Harriet says: "Most of all [I want] to encourage people to experiment and not to be intimidated by prescriptive books and programmes." Harriet also tweets at @harrietrycroft.

Finally, The Sproutling Writes is a particular favourite of mine - a lively blog written by Libby, Head Gardener of Layer Marney Tower, Essex. She frankly describes herself as "a struggling amateur gardener in her home garden" but it's hard to believe as she imparts loads of useful information on what she does and how she does it, with a good dose of humour.

There are surely many other blogs by Head Gardeners out there. If you know of any (or write one) do add to the list in the comments below.

Comments

[Emma]

That's a lovely round-up, thanks for taking part in the challenge!

[Helen]

Thank you, Emma! But I meant to do so-o much more... :(

[VP]

I'm pretty sure there's quite a few NT Gardens with blogs e.g. Hidcote.

However, it's a while since I last looked, so some have probably fallen by the wayside...

[Helen]

Can't find one for Hidcote, VP, although maybe it was http://whathohidcote.blogspot.co.uk which is now finished as the writer has moved on to Kew? I think you're right about the NT - I found Mount Stewart's, which first lapsed into inertia and has now disappeared completely.

[Gary Webb]

Many thanks for the mention, that is very kind. Bloging on Gardening Ways has been quite a challenge of late due to a new 'official' grounds blog we launched at Compton Verney recently, but I'm looking forward to blogging more personal gardening views once again on Gardening Ways.

[Roger Brook]

Thanks for visiting my own blog. I hardly qualify as a head gardener when Brenda my assistant and life partner describes herself as a fair weather gardener- not if its wet, windy or cold! I still manage to look after four gardens, total five acres.