Weeding the Web

Will standard roses become standard again?

I predict a new trend. And I sense a growing interest. For some time I’ve been wondering what happened to standard roses.

Watching The Long Arm recently — the last film from Ealing Studios, a police procedural starring Jack Hawkins — I felt a jolt of recognition as he turned into his front garden and passed standard roses guarding the path. The film was released in 1956 and these roses were a “standard” for front gardens for many years. Indeed, I can just remember them from my childhood.

Why did they fall out of favour? Well, all things do, if only because a new generation of gardeners and designers have to justify their existence by eschewing the established and bringing in the new. And while roses of any sort are poorly suited to the ultra-low maintenance deserts that make up so many front gardens, these also require staking. But I'm not alone in thinking they deserve more attention.

Daddy, my Poppy hasn't grown yet

Letters of Note is a captivating blog dedicated to gathering fascinating correspondence of all kinds.

Some are letters from the rich and famous, and it's touching to see those who have replied thoughtfully to unprovoked, and sometimes needy, correspondence (among them, Iggy Pop). Others speak loudly of the character of their authors - Mark Twain's could surely be by no one else, and if I'd received George Bernard Shaw's missive, I think I'd have curled up and died, rather than give such a spirited response.

But this is a garden-related blog, so where is the gardening link? Well, children can cause a headache even with the best of intentions. See Daddy, my poppy hasn't grown yet for a great example of a father trying to repair the damage wrought by his son's enthusiasm.

Smallholder gives the basics of how to compost

There's just time to let you know (why didn't I think of this before) that my article on Composting Basics is in this month's Smallholder magazine.

Liz Wright, the esteemed editor, is running a Getting Started series on everything you might need to know as a budding smallholder, so I'm in there next to Choosing a House Cow and Starting with a Pig or Two!

Smallholder is a fascinating (and informative) magazine for anyone who has a yen to be a bit more self-sufficient. The poultry section is always very strong.

Meanwhile, composting seems to be something that many find discouraging, although really there's nothing to be frightened of. If you have any composting questions, then do click on comment and post your query below and I'll do my best to help.

Christine Walkden - Gardeners' World material

When I posted about HF Holidays' Garden Tours last week, I mentioned Christine Walkden — gardener, author, lecturer and presenter — who leads a couple of the HF Holidays Garden Tours this year.

Christine’s a busy woman and you can catch up with her activities on her website, where there are details of her courses at Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex, (last year she received a Gold Award from the Association of Colleges for Further Education) her Evening with Christine Walkden theatre tours around Britain, and TV and radio appearances.

Planning a Winter Garden with Roddy Llewellyn

Sometimes nothing is drearier than a winter garden, especially in the wet. If you’re like me, you mostly grow annuals and perennials, and only clear up and cut down in early spring, in order to leave seed-heads for the birds and protect the soil over winter. So, right now, you and I are both looking at a drab, untidy muddle of rotting leaves and stems. Every year, I’m more tempted to do an autumn clear-up for that very reason.

But the view could look better with some structure and, in the post-Christmas lull,now is the moment to resolve (after all, it's nearly New Year) to create interesting view in time for next winter. I have a rather imprecise box ball coming along, but evergreens are not the only solution.

For other ideas, you could read The Winter Garden, an article on the website of well-known garden-designer, author and TV presenter Roddy Llewellyn (and while you’re thinking, “Wasn’t he…er?” Yes, friend of Princess Margaret).

Books for Gardeners: Rhapsody in Green by Beverley Nichols

“The difference between a plant in a pot and a plant in the soil is the difference between a man in a hotel and a man in his own home.”

 

Rhapsody in Green: The Garden Wit and Wisdom of Beverley Nichols is a collection of quotes from this prolific writer, drawn from fifteen of his best titles, and edited by Roy C Dicks, an enthusiast who now lectures on Nichols, using actorly skills to bring him to life.

“One of my grandfathers died of a clump of iris stylosa; it enticed him from a sick bed on an angry evening in January, luring him through the snow-drifts with its blue and silver flames; he died of double pneumonia a few days later. It was probably worth it.”

Books for Gardeners: Green Grows the City by Beverley Nichols

Gardeners unacquainted with Beverley Nichols don’t know what they’re missing. And if you know a gardener who hasn’t yet enjoyed his books, you could effect the introduction this Christmas and solve a present problem. Nichols (1898-1983) goes largely unmentioned these days, although he was once a household name whose face appeared on advertising billboards and who mixed with the rich, famous and royal, counting talents such as Noel Coward among his friends.

Of all his many books, his gardening volumes remain the best known and are an entertaining blend of fact (gardening matters) and fiction (characters who dip in and out of the narrative). Some of them, I’m pleased to report, have recently been republished by Timber Press.  

Alnwick Garden: going the whole hog(wart)

The Duchess of Northumberland has appointed Disney-trained theme-park developer Christian Perdrier to bring his expertise to Alnwick Garden, according to the article Alnwick aims to Bloom with Disney Magic by Chris Tighe in the FT last Saturday (31st October). It’s a venue that Perdrier, alarmingly, refers to as “Alnwick resort”, although he denies wanting to turn it into a theme park.

Has your heart sunk? Apparently, we (the public) but want to absorb history through interactive methods, which, according to the article, may include “holograms, enactments and film special effects”.

AAAGH!

Gardening – too much of a consuming passion?

My thanks to John Walker for his response to Fairy Front Doors: Kitsch or Cute? As ever, he got powerfully to the point: “Surely,” wrote John, “anyone buying this kind of tat is truly away with the fairies.”

And I rather liked them… But the ornaments are part of a stream of “useless stuff” which he feels is encouraging excess consumption. Gardeners, says John, are the one group who have “real potential to hit the brake of consumption and help slow its symptoms, one of which is climate change.”

Garden Writer: Stephen Lacey

Sometimes a writer is so good that his books leap off the shelf at you before you know anything about him. This happened to me most recently with Stephen Lacey whose Real Gardening I couldn’t put down.

Stephen is a well-known name in the garden world: a writer and lecturer who was described by Christopher Lloyd as “a gardener to his fingertips”. His articles appear regularly in the Daily Telegraph, and can be accessed via his site. He used to present on Gardeners’ World, interviewing designers from around the world (would that GW still carried such features).

And as you might expect from an experienced plantsman with a superb eye for describing gardens, his website is beautiful, easily navigable, with loads of lovely photos. The sections on Gardens of the Moment and Plants of the Moment are well worth visiting for inspiration and contemplation.