Gardenig in county Sussex. Tips & Guides

Trugs are a must-have garden accessory, combining practical utility and ornamental value. They can used for collecting cut flowers and plant cuttings, as well as for harvesting your homegrown fruit, veg and culinary herbs. Plus, they can be used to create indoor displays and they make wonderful gardening gifts.

The monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) is a large evergreen tree with a distinctive shape – its often horizontal branches are covered in spirals of sharp, triangular leaves. When mature, trees produce large cones at the tips of the branches. 

As 2024 gets underway, we’ve taken inspiration from Janus, the god of beginnings, transitions and time, who looks both forwards and back. Our gardens have all featured in our pages in the past, but we revisit them here and take a closer look at how they’ve developed over time, and how they’re changing now their owners have new challenges to contend with.

Our 2-for-1 Gardens are filled with interest all year round, even in winter. Join us this month and use your 2-for-1 Gardens entry card to experience the stillness and beauty of deep winter.

I can’t deny that some of the winter-hardy plants are far more abundant grown under glass, so if you have a coldframe, greenhouse, polytunnel or even a series of glass or plastic cloches, do use them. We grow a mix of salads and hardy annual herbs in our glasshouse here, but certainly in Sussex this protection is not essential. The most cold-resistant of these greens, such as parsley, mizuna, mustard ‘Red Giant’ and American land cress, may falter under snow or after several successive days of frost, but even without a cover, they won’t die. They seem to hibernate, and then as soon as there’s a bit of sun or a general thaw they come back to life. 

Join our tailor-made tour of beautiful gardens in Kent and Sussex, full of early summer colour, and enjoy three nights at the four-star East Sussex National Hotel.

I can’t deny that some of the winter-hardy plants are far more abundant grown under glass, so if you have a coldframe, greenhouse, polytunnel or even a series of glass or plastic cloches, do use them. We grow a mix of salads and hardy annual herbs in our glasshouse here, but certainly in Sussex this protection is not essential. The most cold-resistant of these greens, such as parsley, mizuna, mustard ‘Red Giant’ and American land cress, may falter under snow or after several successive days of frost, but even without a cover, they won’t die. They seem to hibernate, and then as soon as there’s a bit of sun or a general thaw they come back to life. 

It was in The Pickwick Papers that Dickens wrote the often quoted line: “Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent – apples, cherries, hops, and women.” The county is still referred to as the Garden of England, even though the amount of fruit traditionally farmed there has declined over the decades. Perhaps it’s still used so widely because some of the country’s most celebrated properties and gardens are to be found in Kent.

Chalk cliffs define the coastline of East Sussex, where fossils from the Jurassic period are regularly revealed on the beaches, not least at Beachy Head, site of one of the country’s most famous lighthouses. Inland, the South Downs, rolling chalk hills bounded to the north by a dramatic escarpment, stretch for roughly 70 miles. 

It was in The Pickwick Papers that Dickens wrote the often quoted line: “Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent – apples, cherries, hops, and women.” The county is still referred to as the Garden of England, even though the amount of fruit traditionally farmed there has declined over the decades. Perhaps it’s still used so widely because some of the country’s most celebrated properties and gardens are to be found in Kent.

Collaborative post

The Body Shop has announced that it is creating its first show garden at RHS Chelsea this year. It’s called The Lady Garden, designed to pay homage to its “founding feminist principles and activist roots”.

It’s nearly two years since I started the Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal, with the aim of raising enough money to help the Millennium Seed Bank save a species. We still have a way to go to reach the target ;(

Seed viability

The fascinating garden at Knepp Castle in Sussex, home to ‘Wilding’ author Isabella Tree, reopens for the scheme this year. Credit: NGS 

Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.

David Mattern, who oversees the vegetable garden at the splendid public space called Chanticleer in Pennsylvania, is my latest target. You may recall that last fall, David helped us take a critical eye to our vegetable gardens as we took them apart during cleanup, and challenged us also to consider tilling less in the year to come for improved soil health and fewer weeds.David is a graduate of Longwood’s Professional Gardeners Training Program, and after that interned in England at some prestigious spots including West Dean Gardens in West Sussex, with its famed walled vegetable garden.He rejoined me on the January 9, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast to h

“The Great Dixter Cookbook,” just out, is by Aaron Bertelsen, the vegetable gardener and cook at–you guessed it–Great Dixter, on the border of Kent and Sussex in England.Aaron was on book tour in the United States lately, and made time just in the nick before boarding the plane home to talk about the Dixter vegetable garden, and what all he concocted from its long harvest season to serve up the 70ish recipes in “The Great Dixter Cookbook.”Read along as you listen to t

Wisteria Sinensis Prolific. This climber is fully hardy, however if you want it to flower in the North East of Scotland, Plant it in a sunny sheltered position.

An abundance of late summer fruits calls for a jam recipe. A simple jam recipe from Selina Lake will make the most of an abundant plum or damson harvest.