Words can hardly describe how beautiful two parts of the garden are at the moment. (They’ll be even more beautiful this weekend, the 15th and 16th August) Five years ago I planted a few dozen bulbs of Iris ‘Harmony’ in a garden bed near the car park. Read more about Garden Harmony
Many visitors to our garden admire our rhubarb beds and we are often asked why our plants have such red stalks whereas their stalks are more often than not green. Sadly most rhubarb plants sold in the big box stores, gardens centres and chain stores are raised from seed. Whilst this means the plants are cheap to buy they will more often than not produce poor plants. Read more about Rhubarb Fool
This cool winter has been wonderful for working in the garden. It has been a good time to attend to those tougher tasks long-delayed through the warmer months. On those rare days when the wind and rain has been simply too bitter we have retreated indoors to the warmth and comfort that good cooking provides. Read more about Winter recipes
I took a basket of ‘Red Light F1’ onions to the Frangos Brothers’ Greek restaurant in Ballarat yesterday. I wanted to find out what Terry Frangos, who uses a lot of red onions in the hundreds of Greek salads he makes every week, thought of this variety. I got a text today from him. “Fantastic, Good Flavour. Great centre and good colour.” Read more about This week in the Vegetable Garden
One of the great joys of mid-winter in my garden is the flowering of a patch of a winter aconite, Eranthis cilicica. Within a week of the aconite pushing through the soil surface in early July this precious plant is in full flower. Rich lemon chalices are surrounded by a ruff of dissected leaves bronze tinged at first but soon becoming deep glossy green. Read more about Winter Aconite and other jewels
In the past I’ve always direct sown poppy seed but over the last year or two I’ve been sowing some into 5cm tubes and planting the seedlings out when Read more about Poppies
In the early 1960s I lived in Malaya and travelled from Singapore to Ipoh on the west side and from Johor Bharu to Kota Bahru on the east. Read more about Every Grain of Rice
I’ve finally learnt not to fight the climate. The garden is situated on a windswept plain some 70 miles from the sea at an altitude of 400 metres. Summer temperatures can reach 47 degrees C. during summer although it mostly doesn’t top 42 C. Winter temperatures can go down to -6C. Read more about Soil Preparation
Two plants flowering in the garden at the moment remind me of Ellen Willmott, a woman who inherited two nineteenth century fortunes, one from her father and another from her godmother, and spent the lot on her gardens and died in penury. Read more about Ellen Willmott
