Marc's Gardens

    Following a horticultural path unique to me, led me to a certain curiosity. Always one for taking a hobby or an interest to its nth degree, a few years ago I found myself becoming intrigued by the ecology of neglected wastelands. I would pass a fenced-off builder’s site, where perhaps a house or two had been torn down, and would make a habit of either stopping by occasionally or passing very slowly to see the vegetation that was developing there. Over the years I’ve developed an interest in the ecology of natural grasslands (meadows, pasture etc) and how this relates to scrub and woodland settings. All I need to hear is one throw-away comment such as ‘ of course, it goes without saying that  our gardens mimic the woodland edge ’ and my curiosity soon becomes an obsession – I simply  need to know more! Having said that, the natural competitiveness of plants (esp perennials) has, for a long time, been of special interest to me. Ever since I first put several clump-forming perenn

I remember speaking to a self-employed gardener once, on the subject of weeding.  I’ve always been a very conscientious weeder, and I’m always keen to get the roots of perennial weeds out. I’ll always remember him saying that he himself didn’t do that. Instead, he simply hoe’d off the top (visible) growth. His attitude was ‘ why would I get them out completely?.... those weeds are my livelihood ’. UUUmmmm? Although his attitude was indeed morally questionable, I did kind of see his point in a way. You see, weeding was part of his bread & butter, and he was keen to carry on earning, keeping busy with as many tasks – weeding being one of them - as possible. I’ll come back to this story towards the end of this post. It’ll make more sense then. Oudolf at Hauser & Wirth Recently, I had to invoice a client of mine my bill for the month of August. Obviously, we had some pretty extreme weather during August (heavy rain & extreme heat) and that caused me to work reduced hours with t

Writing in his iplantsman blog, a friend of mine, Lewis Normand (of Bernhard’s Nursery) has recently been giving some of his design predictions for 2020. An experienced and knowledgeable plantsman and garden designer, who also supplies plants for many a top garden designer, Lewis is in a very good position to give his opinions on the future direction of garden design. For example, he believes 2020 to be the year of the flowering shrub, an opinion shared with many. The likes of Stephen Lacy (writer & broadcaster) have long championed the return of the much-neglected shrub. Now, I love all plants, and believe there’s a home of aesthetic beauty for each and every one of them, but personally, I’ll always favour the transitory nature and dynamism of herbaceous material over shrubs any day.  Lewis also foresees a boom in indoor gardening (I couldn’t agree more) together with the ever-growing popularity of grow-your-own: food to fork and all that. Whereas in my opinion i’ve always