Though we have quite a lot of planting to get through this autumn, most of it, whilst giving a nod to El Niño and the background of climate change will not, as discussed, deviate drastically from the garden’s existing vibe in an effort to accommodate long term unpredictability. In many ways, the gardening year starts here and, as described in the previous newsletter, we will be refining the planting at Dovecote End to eliminate annuals and the underperforming and ‘rabbit bai

The tree of life, the world tree, the sacred tree are all familiar concepts which rather blend into each other, being a fundamental archetype that permeates many of the world's mythological, philosophical and religious traditions, including mentions in the bible. This is an archetype that is represented visually in all kinds of places. We have a cushion, for example, a present for our 50th wedding anniversary which has our initials centred in a heart formed by the main branch

Gardening can teach us many things but the Buddhistic exhortation to apply oneself diligently without grasping at outcomes or focussing on results is a hard one for me. That much was pretty plain in Garden Talk. Gardening is certainly a lived model of effort without control. We prepare the soil and water etc but we cannot control the weather and we cannot force growth. Whilst the end of June and the beginning of July does find us pricking out the seedlings of biennials -

In another report on Chelsea, I read about an exhibit that was in the marquee. It caught my eye because it rather chimed with my interest in the subject of plant consciousness about which I wrote (rather excessively) in a previous newsletter. On the Enmeshed Positive Pathways floral exhibit by Dmitris Koutroumpas and Gaia Eros Florals, Devon based composer Alex Duncan was capturing the aspect of plant consciousness that those in the field class as electrophysiology. Mr Duncan

Today, Glastonbury is probably best known as the location of a huge music festival. And one which is frequently conducted in a quagmire. But then, this is the Somerset Levels - a one time mix of marshes, tidal flats and shallow lakes that, until serious attempts were made to drain them, was regularly flooded by rivers like the Parrett and influenced by tides from the Bristol Channel. Even today, the drainage is apparently maintained by electric pumping stations and other mode

According to the meteorologists, 2026 has seen the wettest start to a year on record for the UK. Following on from last summers drought, this has created a veritable odyssey of running repairs and wholesale replants for us. Whilst Odysseus had to steer between Scylla and Charybdis, we have been caught between the opposing problems of wet and dry. We have mostly well drained soil here. Very well drained. Except for a heavier section at one end. The end where - oddly en

Pantaloons for plants have been compulsory here since the 2010/2011 cold winter that we weren’t supposed to get but which nevertheless cost us a heartbreaking number of evergreen shrubs : pittosporums - from tall Pittosporum tenuifolium Purpureum down to ‘Tom Thumb’ plus freestanding bays, coprosmas, corokias, ceanothus, big clipped Rhamnus alaternus Argenteovariegata, griselinia and even escallonias and Olearia macrodonta. These were all structurally vital plants the loss o

It’s a few years since I first became acquainted with the concept of ‘masting’. Andrew, having driven off to the village shop one day, arrived home courtesy of the local garage proprietor. Our car had gone into limp mode ie put itself on an obligatory go slow. The reason for the ‘limping’ was a revelation for both the garage mechanic and us. The car’s innards - every ledge, every gap but most significantly the air intakes, were stuffed with acorns. It was unbelievable. Mice?

Anyone studying this garden for just a minute would see that I am a sucker for symmetry. It’s a weakness. The late great Christopher Lloyd warned against the ‘one on this corner, one on that corner’ mentality. Even identical varieties of plant in perfectly analogous positions (ie not one facing south and the other facing north) would never develop exactly the same way, so it is best, the master said, to go for balanced asymmetry, Alas, that seems too sophisticated for me.

Merlin’s garden is a concept garden and, in truth, I am not necessarily a fan of concept gardens, i.e. gardens which represent an idea in such a way that everything in them, plants and artefacts alike, has to mean something. Frankly, I preferred Chelsea Flower Show when the gardens were less loaded with meaning and worthiness and just beautifully conceived and planted - and sometimes great fun like Bunny Guinness’s Wind in the Willows garden. So how on earth did we end