As we end this, the strangest and most unpredictable of years, the garden is reassuringly true to its December form. It falls into the rhythm and pattern that December inexorably brings of grey, dull days, the garden as drab and washed out as at any point in in any year. This is not good - but at least it is reliably consistent. Climate change means that snow in December is now rare and frost become much less common.
Read MoreOver 30 years ago I was making a large garden about 20 miles from here in the Herefordshire countryside (The story of which I told which I wrote about in ‘The Prickotty Bush’ pub 1990. Spoiler alert: it ended badly). Part of my rather grandiose plans were to carve the steep hillside into a series of terraces with a large lawn, rose terrace, bowling green and herb garden.
Read MoreWe had lovely September weather again here in Herefordshire, hot and dry and yet softened by exquisite light, and this glorious late-season weather seems a pattern emerging out of climate change, but we know it is all borrowed from summer and when October arrives with the accompaniment of rain, winds and plummeting temperatures at least it feels as though the balance of the seasons are reasserting themselves.
Read MoreThe weather in August was pretty miserable here in the garden. We had a swelteringly hot, humid first half followed by constant, wind, gales and then unseasonable cold. It felt as though the seasons had skipped a month and October was knocking at the door. But September is the mediator. It is the true link between summer and autumn and, in its gentle light and slow drift can be one of the loveliest times of the year.
Read MoreAugust is really a new season and carries the weight of summer and the seeds of winter. Much of the garden is coming to full fruition with flowers, fruits and vegetables all ripening and acquiring a fulsome quality that no other month matches. But at the same time this is clearly a kind of ending and the demands of spring and summer growth start to show.
Read MoreFirst let me apologise for the lack of a June update. The reason was simply that I was completing my latest book ‘MY GARDEN WORLD’ which will be published on September 17th . Together with filming Gardeners World for two days every week throughout lockdown - entirely on my own in the garden via robot cameras- and keeping my various journalistic commitments going has taken every waking hour.
Read MoreThe Lockdown and severely restricted movement imposed as a result of Coronavirus has been tough for many people but the fact remains that for those of us with a garden there has been a silver lining. Throughout April I suspect that more of us spent more time at home than at any time since we were small children and here at home the weather throughout April was a joy.
Read MoreOver the last month all our worlds have been turned upside down and inside out. But there has never been a time when a garden has been more important to our physical or mental well-being. A garden or allotment is a privilege and a luxury but a balcony, window box or a window sill that we can grow some plants on can all enrich our lives and bring a perspective to these troubled days.
Read MoreI apologise for being a little late with my update this month but I have been buried in a book (which will be published this September and is about all the wildlife here in this garden) and lost track of the days.
What with some of the wettest weather I have known in my life, February was a strange month, so it is a relief to arrive at March.
Read MoreI know that there are those that find February the cruellest month- the straw that breaks winter’s back - but I love it. Regardless of the weather or the state of the garden, Spring is coming and the days that hang so heavy in the weeks up to Christmas, are getting lighter in weight as well as day length.
Read MoreWhereas I have a real sense in November and December of the year folding in on itself and the garden at best retreating but more often cowering from the lack of light, January always brings with it a slow unfurling. There may be – there usually is – snow and ice to come but that is a temporary inconvenience. The progression is unstoppably forward. But gently.
Read MoreNovember 2019 was one of the wettest months for a very long time. The fields around the garden remained flooded all month and as the rain increased or backed off, the flood waters rose and fell into the garden like a tide. We have known this before and accept it as part of our winter weather but it makes gardening difficult and, at times, frankly unpleasant.
Read MoreClimate change has meant that November has become one of the busiest months in my garden. 20 years ago we used to prepare the garden for winter in October in the certain knowledge that November would bring days - if not weeks - of some cold, sharp frosts.
Read MoreThe first three weeks of September this year were as good as I can ever remember them. In fact one of my neighbours - a sprightly 90 year old - told me that the last time that he remembered a September as good as this was the Battle of Britain - 1940!
Read MoreThe summer is drawing to a close but it usually manages to do this gracefully throughout the month of September. I may live to eat my words – September has been known to be cold and wet and climate change is challenging all preconceptions and experience – but by and large it is a lovely month with daytime warmth, nights that are pleasantly cool and a special light that has real elegance.
Read MoreAlthough August is the month of holidays and high summer, it is also when the garden can start to become a little careworn. Actually this fading tendency tends to be worst at the beginning of the month and as we go towards September – at Longmeadow at least – it seems to pick up pace again.
Read MoreWhereas July 2018 was part of a long hot, dry spell, this year Longmeadow starts the month sodden after a particularly wet June. But, by British standards at least, July is always warm so midsummer rain means lushness and green everywhere along with the intense colours of the high summer borders.
Read MoreThe whole year reaches for and aspires to the month of June. The days reach their peak on the 21st and Midsummers Day - June 24th is the high point of the year. So the first, most obvious but far the most important thing is to enjoy your garden as much as possible in every way possible. Do not let a moment slip by.
Read MoreI do apologise for being rather late with this May update – but I have been away in America on the first trip of the ‘Monty Don’s American Gardens’ series that will be shown early next year. We filmed in Washington, Virginia, South Carolina, Miami, & Louisiana.
Read MoreLunch outside is the measure of good weather in Spring. The first day you can have lunch outside without freezing to death whilst simultaneously pretending that you having a great time and longing for a really hot fire to stand by, is either a freak of climate change or – April.
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