Gardening
Has the RHS forgotten its roots?
Chekhov had no illusions about horticulture (‘It’s a nice, healthy business to be in, but there are passions and wars…
Immersive and spectacular: Piet Oudolf’s new borders at RHS Wisley reviewed
Piet Oudolf’s long borders at Wisley were worn out. The famous designer had in fact become a bit embarrassed by…
Snobbery in the garden: U and non-U borders
When Richard Sudell began promoting pyracantha, hanging baskets and crazy paving in the 1920s, the backlash from the gardening elite was vicious and immediate
The truth about Paul Hollywood
My husband and I are in New York, where everyone is talking about the approaching Trump-Biden debate. Well, I’ll be…
A walled garden in Suffolk yields up its secrets
When Olivia Laing began restoring the former property of a garden designer, she had no idea of the beauty that lay hidden by rampant weeds
How to live off the land for a year
Could you live off the land for a year without buying a single thing to eat? This was the challenge…
Emily Dickinson was not such a recluse after all
Far from being closeted in her bedroom, her letters show that she was still travelling in her mid-thirties, and taking pleasure in gardening and the glories of nature
The strangeness of Charles III
‘He can cry at a sunset’, says one courtier of the King. A bullied child and an intellectual among George Formby fans, Charles dreams of gardening and plants mazes
Dangerous secrets: Verdigris, by Michele Mari, reviewed
A lonely teenager on holiday in Italy befriends his grandparents’ elderly gardener and slowly coaxes out his painful memories of betrayals and reprisals during the war
The best of this year’s gardening books
Authors reviewed include Jinny Blom on design, Jenny Joseph on scented plants, Maury C. Flannery on herbaria and Francis Pryor on his Fenland haven
Nina Stibbe’s eye for the absurd is as sharp as ever
Back in London after an absence of 20 years, she’s no longer a literary outsider – but she’s still an acute observer, relishing the foibles of everyone she meets
Confessions of a lawn obsessive
For the past few days I’ve been frantically watering my lawn in anticipation of the London hosepipe ban. True, there…
Fleeing paradise: eden, by Jim Crace, reviewed
Since announcing his retirement in 2013, Jim Crace has had more comebacks than Kanye West, something for which we should…
Gardening’s bad girl: the genius – and malice – of Ellen Willmott
In October 1897, the grandees of the Royal Horticultural Society gathered to bestow their highest award, the Victoria Medal of…
Earthly paradises: the best of the year’s gardening books
Important historic gardens fall into two main categories: those made by one person, whose vision has been carefully preserved down…
Fortifying snapshot of the gardener’s year: Saatchi Gallery's RHS Botanical Art show reviewed
Elizabeth Blackadder, who died last month at the age of 89, was probably the most distinctive botanical artist of our…
Letters: In defence of organic food
A note about manure Sir: I am afraid Matt Ridley shows a lack of understanding about agriculture in general and…
The strange death of the English garden
Real gardens are dying out
Straight lines and grandiose schemes — Napoleon the gardener
Not content with imposing his will on nations, Napoleon tried to subdue nature too, says David Crane
Sowing seeds of comfort
If you had asked me a year ago how a pandemic-panicked world of stockpiles, curfews and social isolation would influence…
Defund theatres – and give the money to gardeners and bingo halls
Why does the state fund theatres and not gardening and bingo, asks Lloyd Evans
The best podcasts for all your corona-gardening needs
The American diet was probably at its healthiest in the second world war. Fearing interruption to supply chains, Washington launched…
Gardening is the great panacea
Viewed from a purely private garden perspective, this has been a ver mirabilis. The blossom has been wonderful and long-lasting,…
