Marc's Gardens

Labour of Love   So, anyway, again I hear that gardening tops the poll of happiest jobs. Work-related misery and high suicide rates still appear to attach themselves to GP's and dentists. Strange one that.... and one I've never quite understood myself. But, being neither, what would I know? Although I must confess, my mouth houses more lead than the local church roof and looking at the state of our nation's teeth - well, it's enough to depress anyone I would've thought! So why is gardening constantly uppermost in that list of top jobs? Well, I guess that could do with some of the following observations... my observations that is. What I've seen from 'doing' gardening, teaching gardening, and watching gardeners garden. Here are just a few of my thoughts on the subject... A'hem! 1 - You can't rush the seasons . Unlike most areas of modern business, you simply can't hurry gardening. There are quite definite seasonal tasks, and th...

  Fresh back from two weeks in Thailand, and what an amazing time I had there. As a gardener, I always try to take my holiday in either January or February: it makes complete sense really. In my approach to winter working, I always structure my mentality in the same way. Basically, as autumn approaches I prepare for the cooler, colder days, put my head down and step up a gear, always aiming to work right through until Xmas. It’s a good plan really, as the worst of the winter weather (extreme cold, snow & ice) doesn’t really hit us until after Xmas.   With nothing but a pair of shears and some bamboo supports, Thai gardeners go about shaping these trees.   You would think that with the days getting longer (since Dec 21 st ) and the sun getting slowly stronger… Well, you wonder why it seems to get so much colder in Jan & Feb? Of course, the reason for this is obvious really. Basically, the land and the seas around us have been gettin...

 A stone trough, grown tired with rampant Persicarias... an Agapanthus (if I remember correctly) and other oddities! Let's give it all a huge cut back; take it all down and maybe take most of it out! Then, let's look around the garden and see what free plants there are we could work with.     I am often asked about the process of garden design. The task  of designing a garden seems, at times, almost an impossible thing to do. Think about it. How do you create a garden like those you see out and about when visiting professional or pu blic gardens? It’s a mammoth task really! You want (need) trees and shrubs to give height, structure and a sense of permanence. You need smaller herbaceous plants which rise and fall at different times of the year. You’ll want all-year- round interest, yet given the constraints of border space, how can you achieve this? After all, a plant can only accommodate one unit of soil space at a time. Right? ...

I was going to visit a friend in Hemel Hempstead the other day. From Sevenoaks, this means going half way round the M25, past such notorious hold-up-hotspots as Clackets and around Jct 8 & 9. I decided to leave after 9.00am in the hope that most of the commuter traffic would be gone by then and that the M25 might be slightly quieter. Some hope! It wasn't long before I hit the first of many snarl-ups around junction 8. About an hour later, boiling hot and cursing like Gordon Ramsay in a bug-infested kitchen, I decided to give up on the idea and turn off at my next opportunity. Fortunately, the next slip road led me straight into the loving embrace of RHS Wisley. If nothing else I could at least pop in there for a caramel latte and a slice of cake.    Lots of lovely lovely Stipa gigantea As I say, it was a baking hot day, and boy! was I glad to arrive at the near-empty Wisley car park. Do you know, I have an air-condition...