Posts from ‘December, 2009’

So. It’s the last day of 2009. I’ve had a pretty fabulous year. It has been fantastic gardening on my own plot rather than surreptitiously taking control of my parents’ garden. And for the first year on the vegetable patch, we’ve had a pretty satisfying crop. I am incredibly happy.
But one of the loveliest things [...]

I love my kale plants. I started sowing them back in April, and now have seven of them dotted around the garden. A couple of them are in the veg patch, but I’ve used the rest to create winter interest in the flower border as so much else has died back. In this snow, they [...]

I’m starting to look at F&F’s plans for the new year. I’ve already got lots in the pipeline, including the continuation of our Design Showcase series. We’ve had some fantastic designers sign up for this, and I’m currently making all sorts of excited noises as they send me images of their stunning work. I’m also [...]

Visit the Fennel and Fern Flickr group to upload your own pictures.

Here, by popular demand, is the Fennel & Fern 2010 calendar. I’ve worked hard on this calendar. It’s partly because I wanted to make a trendy gardening calendar that I would be proud to hang in my kitchen or bathroom. There are no trugs, no potting sheds, and no middle-aged men clutching spades here.
But the [...]

Standing on a station platform is normally something we do reluctantly. It isn’t really an activity you would wish to draw out. Unless of course, you are waiting for a train at Leamington Spa station. Then you might will your train to be late so you can wander a little longer around the beautiful platform [...]

To kick off our fortnightly series featuring top garden designers, London-based Charlotte Rowe takes us through some of her most beautiful projects.

Gardens, as we know, are never a finished work. The older plots have layers of discarded designs from former owners and fashions, and the result is never really a result. It is still changing. The Bishop’s Palace and Gardens in Wells is a prime example of this. When head gardener James Cross talks me through [...]

The next few months are always a little odd for gardeners. I do little more in December and January than crawl outside to gather chard, parsnips and carrots, then crawl back in again to curl up under a throw with a seed catalogue or back issues of Gardens Illustrated. But my passion for gardening [...]