Gardening

The strangeness of Charles III

27 January 2024 9:00 am

‘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

20 January 2024 9:00 am

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

4 November 2023 9:00 am

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

28 October 2023 9:00 am

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

Dear Mary

2 September 2023 9:00 am

Giant hogweed

29 July 2023 9:00 am

Confessions of a lawn obsessive

27 August 2022 9:00 am

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

13 August 2022 9:00 am

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

7 May 2022 9:00 am

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

13 November 2021 9:00 am

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

25 September 2021 9:00 am

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

31 July 2021 9:00 am

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

24 July 2021 9:00 am

Real gardens are dying out

Straight lines and grandiose schemes — Napoleon the gardener

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Not content with imposing his will on nations, Napoleon tried to subdue nature too, says David Crane

Sowing seeds of comfort

10 April 2021 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Why does the state fund theatres and not gardening and bingo, asks Lloyd Evans

The best podcasts for all your corona-gardening needs

18 July 2020 9:00 am

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

30 May 2020 9:00 am

Viewed from a purely private garden perspective, this has been a ver mirabilis. The blossom has been wonderful and long-lasting,…

Letters: The joy of balconies

25 April 2020 9:00 am

The closing of churches Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however…

No pigs in sight: Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

The charm – and artifice – of the English cottage garden

20 July 2019 9:00 am

The confusion is understandable. You arrive at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon, keen to experience the quintessential cottage garden —…

Everything under the sun: The glory of garden centres

8 June 2019 9:00 am

Don’t you just love garden centres? You have to be mad to go on a sunny Sunday morning in the…

The magic of the Chelsea Flower Show

25 May 2019 9:00 am

Chelsea, the most famous flower show in the world, pulled in its devotees once more this week, with its accustomed…

David Cameron campaigning on the day before the June 2016 referendum (Getty)

Letters: Of course Brexit is David Cameron’s fault

13 April 2019 9:00 am

All Cameron’s fault Sir: In this time of febrile political speculation, there can have been few more arresting subject headings…

‘Lovely’ is the word that best sums up the National Garden Scheme

Why the National Garden Scheme beats the Chelsea Flower Show hands down

28 July 2018 9:00 am

What could be more British than nosying around someone else’s private property while munching on a slice of cake? The…

It’s the Year of the Slug and I’m at war with the slimy little bastards

9 June 2018 9:00 am

I know some people are fretting about Brexit, and others about the drive-by violence the President is doing to the…