The Gardener's Journal - May
May is my favourite month in the garden, which is slightly inconvenient because it never lasts long enough. If I had any say in the matter, I would happily press pause on the entire thing and keep it exactly as it is for a few extra weeks.
The Gardener's Journal - April
April is the month when the garden stops asking politely and starts making demands. One minute it was quietly waking up. The next it has burst into full conversation, talking over itself and expecting you to keep up. Growth arrives with enthusiasm and very little warning. Leaves unfurl almost audibly. Shoots stretch with ambition. Weeds appear overnight as if delivered by courier. The change is intoxicating and slightly alarming.
The Gardener's Journal - March
March is when the year actually starts, not January. January is a con. A month sold to us by calendars, fitness apps and overly enthusiastic planners. It arrives with fireworks and resolutions and the promise of reinvention, yet delivers darkness, cold fingers and a deep mistrust of the outside world. January tells you to change your life while standing knee deep in sleet.
Tools that time forgot - and why we shouldn't
Walk into any garden centre and you'll be bamboozled by a wall of the latest new-release tools promising to revolutionise your gardening life. 'Forget about your old tools, they say, 'these ones are shiny, better, titanium-infused, space age marvels with ergonomic grips and all! And yet, a curious thing sometimes happens when you actually start digging in earnest: the spade bends, the handle creaks ominously, and you begin to wonder whether the pre-power tool gardeners, who m
