11 July 2024
There’s a garden in Paris I’d not previously visited but always wanted to: Jardin Atlantique built above Montparnasse railway station. A couple of weeks ago I was in Paris for three days so I seized the opportunity. I…
23 May 2024
Outside the Clegg Building, the Cornus kousa is looking amazing. Here’s a picture I took two days ago (21st May). The creamy ‘leaves’ are called bracts. A bract is neither a leaf nor a flower, but it’s often…
4 May 2024
Allium ursinum, wild garlic, is a very attractive plant with its cluster of white star-like flowers and lily-of-the-valley leaves. Also called ramsons, it is in full aroma for a couple of months each year. According to Richard Mabey…
26 April 2024
Rowan Middleton (eco-poetry lecturer) is arranging a trip next week to Slad, former home of celebrated writer Laurie Lee. You are invited to walk with him through the Gloucestershire countryside to experience the historic village setting of Laurie…
21 April 2024
Bluebell season again. Hyacinthoides non-scripta opening up in woodland is one of our great wild-flower spectacles. For many it’s an annual pilgrimage to local bluebell woods. In the Chilterns the bluebells flower often as the beech trees come…
14 April 2024
This year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, an act which secured access for everyone to open countryside whilst preserving and enhancing natural beauty; founded on the understanding…
1 April 2024
Lynn Kinnear who has died of cancer was one of the outstanding landscape architects of her generation. Her practice KLA was founded in 1991 and has been recognised throughout Europe as one of a small number in the…
27 March 2024
“The gnarled blackthorn bushes are covered in thousands upon thousands of white stars, their firework middles exploding in all directions. They won’t think of leafing for a while yet, and so there is only this dark and light,…
14 March 2024
The rain held off and we were treated to a friendly, informative visit hosted by Ian and his team who showed us around the stock areas and various operations of the main site, including the more extensive tree…
13 February 2024
But there’s lots of kinds of bees that aren’t honey bees and Harry and Lorraine from Harry’s Bees told us all about them. There are more than 20,000 species of bees in the world and, unlike the iconic…