Gardening

Weekend Work: There is still pruning to be done.

Saturday, 21 November 2009

What to doThere is still pruning to be done. Young fruiting cherries need their leading branches shortened by half for the first four years. As they mature, take out only wood that has died or whole branches that are rubbing or crossing.

Here's one I made earlier: Start collecting evergreens now for a festive home-made Christmas display

Sunday, 15 November 2009

If you wince at the prices of flower-shop Christmas arrangements, there is an alternative. I have a godmother for whom one of the best moments of winter is going out in the garden to pick ivy and other evergreens to weave into a Christmas wreath for the front door. In the past couple of years, I've caught the bug. And if you're one of those people who thinks Margo Leadbetter-style "doing the flowers" is beyond them, this is a great place to start.

Border lines: Planning a new garden?

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Faced with a plot of ground to turn into a garden, a new gardener's instinct is to tackle the edges first, to work round the boundary.

Weekend Work: Time to plant grape vines

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Winter warmer: Need a sophisticated, yet no-fuss bloom to give your frosty garden a colourful lift? Bring on the hellebores...

Sunday, 8 November 2009

It sometimes feels as though there is very little colour in my garden over the winter, though I currently have a tide of orange growing up the back fence, where some late nasturtiums suddenly decided to germinate in early September. But their tropical colour will be a thing of memory come the first frost. For real midwinter jewels, I will never do better than hellebores, which flower from around Christmas through until March.

The hip parade: Anna Pavord is devoting a wild section of her garden to some very fruity numbers

Saturday, 7 November 2009

The "hippery" happened by accident, rather than design. At the top of the bank there's a largeish area drifting back from a curving path to finish at the eastern edge of the garden. The boundary is a wild one – holly, elder, thorn, hazel – with a view to rough sloping pastures beyond. I never meant to take in as much garden as we have, but once started it was difficult to stop. Common sense finally prevailed and I realised it was sensible to leave this last bit as the handshake between cultivated and wild, a transition between garden and landscape, cared for but not too much.

Weekend Work: Time to plant heathers

Saturday, 7 November 2009

Pretty as a picture: A snappy lesson in the tricks of the garden photographer's trade

Sunday, 1 November 2009

There is only one thing that could have persuaded me to spend a Sunday morning sitting in a far-too-thin raincoat on a soggy gravel path in a mild October drizzle, taking photos of the same herbaceous border, over and over again. In this case, it was the photography teacher Jacqui Hurst.

When heaven freezes over: How to keep plants warm this winter

Sunday, 25 October 2009

Before the chill winds really begin to bite, it's time to think about wrapping up those delicate plants to see them through the winter

Finding the plot: Anna Pavord meets a first-time gardener who fell in love with the growing game

Saturday, 24 October 2009

"Well that's a first," I thought as I turned up earlier this year at Laetitia Maklouf's flat in west London and found, pinned to the door, a note saying "Gone into labour". What with the new baby (her first) and other things, months passed before I caught up with Maklouf and her balcony, which is what I wanted to talk to her about.