How The Spectator shaped John Buchan
Amid the hullabaloo attending the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Buchan on 26 August – the walks and…
The secrets of the Palm House at Kew
The news that the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, will begin a £60 million, five-year renovation in…
Blooming marvellous: the year’s best gardening books
Subjects include Catesby’s Natural History, London’s lost green spaces, planting for colour in borders and the complexity of a garden’s ecology38
What can save Britain’s ash trees?
The next time you drive or walk down a country road, you may well notice that something is not quite…
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
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
Going to ground
Do you ever think about the ground beneath your feet? I do. Having read a number of popular science books…
Watering
In the hot, dry summer of 1976, I was working as a gardening student at Arboretum Kalmthout in Belgium. The…
Slugs and snails
Slugs and snails are the bane of every gardener who tries to grow strawberries, leafy and tuberous vegetables, flowering bulbs…
The fruits of their labour
Important historic gardens fall into two main categories: those made by one person, whose vision has been carefully preserved down…
Into the woods
Anyone who spends time among trees senses how good that is for their physical and mental wellbeing, says Ursula Buchan
The spiritual dimension
Dan Pearson is one of the finest of all British garden designers, blessed with sensitivity, a wonderful eye, deep plant…
Show stopper
It’s been an awful year for village fairs
A great antidote to grief
Viewed from a purely private garden perspective, this has been a ver mirabilis. The blossom has been wonderful and long-lasting,…
A tribute to the grandes dames of gardening — Beth Chatto and Penelope Hobhouse
There is no longer much point buying strictly practical gardening books, such as were a staple of the publishing industry…
The magic of the Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea, the most famous flower show in the world, pulled in its devotees once more this week, with its accustomed…
Top topiary: the year’s best gardening books
There are probably no more gifted professional gardeners in England than Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, husband and wife and…
The real gardeners’ questions answered
Why is it that gardening in the public prints is so often treated as a fluffy subject for fluffy people?…
Top tips for gardeners — from stroking seedlings to stacking logs
I spent the summer of 1976 working as a trainee gardener at the Arboretum Kalmthout in Belgium. My employer was…
The many lives of John Buchan
Ursula Buchan casts further light on her grandfather’s famous novel
Tree devotion
I have never written much about the one-acre shaw of native trees I planted in 1994, even though it is…
Calm after the storm
I hesitate ever to criticise an author for the inappropriateness of a book’s title, since it’s more likely the fault…
Garlands of repose
It is a truism that writers of all kinds often find inspiration and solace in their gardens, as well as…
