Using Herbs In An English Garden
Plan your design to suit yourself and your site. Make a list of your favourite herbs – most herbs do best in the sun so if you are going to have a formal herb garden check to see that it has sun for at least half the day. Herbs grow well in ... [... more]
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English Cottage Garden Herbs
With blue flowers and hairy leaves Borage has been grown in English Gardens since the mid 1400s.It was thought to bring courage and today the flowers (hairy bits removed!) can be added to summer drinks like Pimms. It is a hardy annual with a ... [... more]
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Rosemary, The Herb Of Remembrance.
Since Shakespeare’s time rosemary has been clipped into domes or spheres and it makes a lovely fragrant low hedge (2-3ft or 60 -90cm) and is an ideal border for a rose garden. as for rosemary I let it run all over my garden walls, not only ... [... more]
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Mint - Famous In The Traditional Herb Garden.
Plant them in their own beds or better still in pots where you will be able to control them. Cut back the flowering tops if you wish to keep up a steady supply of fresh new leaves. Minthe in Greek mythology was a lovely nymph who Hades the God of ... [... more]
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English Wildflowers
Grows approx 50cm tall, a herbaceous perennial, whose leaves can be used in salads. It has round reddish purple flowers from May to August. I found that it also tends to spread quite quickly. Grows from 20 - 30cm tall and has blue flowers from ... [... more]
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Gooseberries
Sometimes known as grosberry, feaberry or fayberries - gooseberries have been grown in England since the reign of Henry Vlll. Gooseberry juice used to be considered a good medicine for fever and in the sixteenth century the juice was thought to ... [... more]
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Lungwort
The name pulmonaria comes from the Latin pulmo which means lung. The silvery white spots on the long blue-green hairy leaves were also thought to look like lungs and therefore the plant was considered useful for curing lung diseases. Nicholas ... [... more]
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Gardening Tips
Here's a good tip - plan your garden to reduce the work load as you get older, I know we don't think of ourselves as ageing but forward planning will mean that you still have a lovely garden but the digging and weeding tasks are reduced. This ... [... more]
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Bladder Campions
It is also called Cow Bells, Fat Bellies or Rattleweed. In Northern England it was called White Riding Hood and surprisingly in the southern counties of England it was called Thunderbolt. Legend had it, that if you ... [... more]
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Thyme In An English Garden
Thymes grow very well in containers. Growing thyme in pots is a good way to have some by your doorways and it will be handy if you need to pick some for cooking use. The aromatic leaves are used in bouquet garni, stuffings, sauces and flavouring ... [... more]
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Chives
You can cut leaves and freeze them for winter use by pouring boiling water over them which will blanch them. Then cool them in a sieve by running cold water over them. Dry them as thoroughly as possible and freeze in sealed polythene bags or you ... [... more]
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Foxgloves
There are many stories as to how the name foxglove originated -my favorite is the one which tells of naughty fairies who gave the blossoms to foxes to wear on their feet, to muffle the sound of their footfalls when out hunting for rabbits and ... [... more]
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