“Chill December brings the sleet, Blazing fire, Christmas treat” Sara Coleridge This is the last verse of the poem ‘The Months’, and this year it may be rather true. We have a...
“It is enough To smell, to crumble the dark earth While the robin sings over again, Sad songs of autumn mirth ” Edward Thomas “Digging” October has been remarkably mild although we...
“The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft, And gathering swallows twitter in the skies” John Keats, “To Autumn” To me, the sound of a robin’s song is definitely different come September. Whether it...
“August brings the sheaves of corn, Then the harvest home is bourne” Sara Coleridge (1802-52) If anyone was not sure that our weather systems are in flux and environmental conditions are changing,...
Summer is in full glory in July, there is never a moment to sit still! Vegetable patches are heaving with the weight of ripening produce, as are fruit bushes, strawberry plants, tomatoes...
June – the month of the longest day. The highest number of sunshine hours available per day, the plants revel in the warmth and (inevitably!) the rain. Summer plants are putting on...
I think May has to be the prettiest month. Whereas October can produce glorious colours, there is nothing like the blanket of spring flowers that appear in May. The hedges and verges...
April, the glorious month of spring! But as recent years have shown, it’s still a good idea to have some horticultural fleece to hand in case of a turn in the weather...
Wasn’t February a wild month? Certainly for the second half! I hope not too much damage has been done around the Roseland, however it’s hard not to notice freshly cut tree stumps...
February can be misleading. Sometimes, here on the Roseland with our little microclimate, it can lull us in to a false sense of spring with warm sunshine and brave spring flowers. But...