THE OTHER NIGHT a newt ambled in after supper as if to join us for dessert. That morning, a pair of garter snakes had poked their heads up, periscope-style, from a stone wall. And nonstop frogpond madness: seven rambunctious male green frogs are fighting over one poor female. All are signs of a healthy garden where no chemicals are used, but also signal to me how important it is to make room for change in life: to shed a little skin, perhaps, or to try a change of venue every now and again (as do amphibians, which means “both lives”–in their case, land and water). Some photos of my provocative little friends. The red eft in my hands is the terrestrial youth stage of <a href=«http://amphibiaweb.org/cgi-bin/amphib_query?query_src=» https: class=«external» target="_blank">the Eastern newt, specifically the red-spotted subspecies (so not simply Notophthalmus viridescens, but Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens), which started its life in water as an aquatic larvae, not unlike a tadpole. She (he?) will spend the next two or three years or so wandering about up here with us earth-dwellers, before reaching sexual maturity and returning to the water to breed. Three adults that I can see are in the smaller of my backyard pools, presumably doing just that. I sometimes see adults (sort of khaki color but retaining those red spots surrounded by black rings) out of the water. Apparently they are able to make the shift again if their pool dries up and they need to relocate, for instance, I have read.
The lesson: Be versatile!
I’m not crazy about snakes, but in the years since I moved upstate fulltime I have gotten much better about them—or at least the non-venomous varieties (still not thrilled to spy an Eastern timber rattler!). It
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A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
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.
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
I was picking the Czar plums to make more jam when a wasp was disturbed from eating it’s lunch. Wasps go for my plums just as they are at their sweetest best. My problem was I couldn’t see which plums had a wasp in the fruit if they were above head height or facing away from my hand. The resulting sting set me on the trail of other stingers in the garden.
For over 25 years I have gardened a rockery or rock garden on a triangular patch of poor soil. I progressively scrounged and collected a range of granite, limestone and sandstone rocks and added them piecemeal. I aspired to growing alpine plants and recognised good drainage and shelter from winter wet weather would be key but that is as far as my planning would go. For the first couple of decades I was busy at work and wasn’t able to put in the effort of looking after small but hardy alpines.
Not what you would expect for a garden called ‘The Phoenix Garden’ in the middle of Tottenham Court Road near Crown Point. It isn’t a phoenix from the ashes of a great fire or a WW11 bomb site at but was built on a disused car park in the 1980s. It may be part of an overflowing burial ground for St Giles-in-the-field church back in the 1600s and is reputed to be the last surviving Covent ‘Garden’. The entrance is located in St Giles Passage