December has been very cold and wet as the storm season has arrived in force. We have had howling gales and heavy seas, and days on end of rain with the recent Storm Bella which came roaring across the Atlantic and hit us full on. There is much debris to clear but at least the water table will have been replenished. And we have now passed the winter solstice so the days will start to get longer and the sun a little higher. We did have one fine day and it showed how vibrant the plants can be even with all the salt-blasting and weather that mother nature can throw at them.

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It has been a truly awful year and we are now locked up for another month as the resurgent Virus rages still. All we can do is remember happier times and plan for renewal in 2021. When spring comes, the tiered garden going down to the house will be redeveloped with a mass of pinks and whites in Mexican fleabane- erigerons- and Japanese anemone to contrast with the blue agapanthuses. Dreaming is part of the joy of gardening at this time of year; the hard work will come in about 10 weeks, just before the arrival of spring.

For now, we are hunkering down for the new year tonight with board games, sweet wine and Tunnocks tea cakes and caramel bars, like last year and all the years previously.

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A toast: to life after the Virus, and dreams of the garden to come.

We have been enjoying the last few days of this peculiar summer here by the sea. It is the autumn equinox tomorrow (22^nd) and the days will become shorter and colder from now on but today, it is so warm and bright walking along the beach in the late afternoon. The baby seagulls have lost their grey fluffy coats and become brown speckled freshers giving off a trill call to their mums who are waiting to pinch your ice-cream.

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The seaside garden is having a last great flourish with its rich red sedums, pink roses and bronze cannas, all trying hard to keep going before everything starts to die back.

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But the best of the month are the bright red Rosa Ragusa and honeysuckle hips, and the orange of the last of the red-hot pokers.

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The old standbys are doing fine, and they will see us through the bare winter. My favourites are the rosemary waterfalls and shrubs that smell so fragrant as you pass them on the steps, and campanula and fern corner where, whatever you do to them, they just spring back.

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There is much work to do to get the garden ready for the winter, but the jobs can wait. To celebrate this last day of summer, while we have the sun, sitting out in the secret garden still has its pleasures, even though the agapanthuses have gone over to seed.

Come back next time to catch up on the garden as we go into winter.

I love these lazy dog days of summer when everything is too much trouble so you might as well kick back and enjoy the sun. The autumn equinox is just round the corner so there are not many days left to enjoy the heat before the south westerlies bring the Atlantic storms once again.

Summer has been very different this year with the Virus resulting in garden work not being done so it is all a bit wild and we have missed the growing season for the veggies, except for the shallots and onions. No matter, there is always next year. The aggies are going over, but the olive tree is flourishing- must be all that winter and spring rain.

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In the meantime, there are the dying embers of this strange summer to enjoy, including lots of butterflies and bees.

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And star of the month? A healthy fat hedgehog.

Come back next time to catch up on the garden as we enter autumn.

It’s so great to be back by the sea after four months locked-up in the city trying to stay out of the virus’s way. The sea is still here, bright blue and twinkling on a sunny day and the seaside garden is very lush. It must be all that winter rain and the mild conditions that have kept everything going these past few months.

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The seaside is very busy with our local lobster fisherman out laying his pots under the watchful eye of the village seagulls. We had some of his catch in the pub at the top of the cliff which has just reopened. There are wild swimmers about who were making their way past his boat to get to the old Tudor harbour. I’m not sure what the gulls thought of them with their bright orange floats. And another craze has arrived with flotilla paddle boarding and canoeing. It looks fun once you have got some sense of balance on the board! They seem to be oblivious of the jagged rocks and lobster pots beneath them.

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The garden needed a lot of weeding but we’re on top of it now, and the secret garden, the stone alley and terraces, including the rosemary waterfall, the roses, the wisteria and the verbena are all flourishing. We missed the clematises and fox gloves flowering but we’ll be ready for them next year. And the new chardonnay grapevines? They are trying. We missed the planting window for the ratatouille veggies but the onions and rhubarb have done well – the harvest has been rich with much soup and sauce making in train.

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And let’s celebrate the splash of colour provided by the tumbling nasturtiums that have taken over the potato and runner bean patches. It’s a blaze of yellows and oranges.

Flower of the month has to be this lovely apricot rose.

And the medieval hermit’s chapel out at the end of the peninsula watches over it all as it has done for hundreds of years.

If you’d like another Zen moment, click here for more and don’t forget to come back next time.

It is early summer now and unbelievably, the summer solstice, when the sun is at its highest in the northern hemisphere, has already passed on the 22nd of June. We are still locked in the city because of the virus and three months have gone by but the garden by the sea is thriving from pictures sent by our gardener. And it has gone pink-very pink!

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Meanwhile, in the Wimbledon garden, the lemon and blues that heralded the spring, and the bustle of the early white rambling roses, have given way to all shades of pink too. The star this month is the dierama – also called the angel’s fishing rods – bobbing in the breeze.

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Not to be outdone, the pink oleander and hydrangea are bursting into life.

And the etagere’s vivid geraniums make a lovely back drop for the bird bath while the bees like the fragile pale pink poppy.

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Finally, the old reliable pretty orchid is in full flower again.

If you need a zen moment, click here for more, and come back next time for a catch up, at last, on the garden by the sea.

The virus is still here so we have been locked up for another month in the city. But the seaside garden is doing fine judging from the lovely pictures of it sent by our gardener who has been working hard to keep everything in order. It has so benefitted from nearly four months of continuous rain and the recent heatwave. The plants are absolutely flourishing under these conditions despite the salt blasting during the many winter storms.

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The same weather has forced the early development of many plants in our city garden. It was originally part of Earl Spencer’s south west London estate in the 18th and 19th century when he planted an apple and pear orchard. Although those days are long gone, many of the gardens in this part of London have fruit trees as part of his legacy.

Our apple and pear trees always herald spring’s arrival with their prolific beautiful blossoms. Sadly, the show only lasts about a week or so when the winds arrive to clear them away. You can really understand the joy and sorrow the Japanese feel when they celebrate the spring blossom season.

But there is always more and the rhododendron, tulips, arum lilly and alliums are up next. They have been longer-lasting and no less beautiful. And this is the time when the tree fern and cannas are unwrapped from their winter covers to feel the sun once more.

The growing conditions have been just right for the next wave, the big scene stealer – the roses. Roses are tough and they do well in city gardens. From mid-May, the stage is set for the summer and autumn months filled with their contrasting shapes and colours. Wave after wave, and in the evenings the garden is filled with their fragrances. Bursting with buds and new growth everywhere, May is an exciting time in the city garden.

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The birds love this garden too. There are thrushes, a pair of blackbirds, many LBJs-little brown jobs- and blue tits, and watching over them all is King Robin-a very possessive territorial bird with a beautiful song. From time to time, a pair of jays and a woodpecker visit to eat and drink in the garden, and each evening flocks of starlings and parakeets fly over as they return to their roosts in the park nearby.

A charming squirrel family lives high up in the pear tree from where they mount their raids on the bird food, avoiding the suburban foxes that patrol the place in their oh-so-nonchalant way. You have to admire their cheek.

The virus means no one can travel, not even to the lovely seaside garden in Cornwall, so this month, while on lock-down, let’s reflect on a few memories made last April in southern Spain while sailing along the Guadalquivir from Seville to the Atlantic Ocean.

Andalucia is hot even at Easter, but in 2019 there was a heatwave so how the gardens survived in those conditions is a tribute to the Spanish gardeners. In Seville, there is much activity on the water in this busy urban part of the river from rowing and sailing to windsurfing.

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But downstream, it’s also a working river with oyster dredgers and local processing – much of it unchanged since the 19th century. Sailing through the flat lands of the Parc Nationale is slow and the sky is big – a good setting for the film La Isla Minima – a murder mystery set in these parts. Then you meet the big swells of the Atlantic to sail south to Cadiz and Cape Trafalgar.

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Southern Spain is blessed with a strong Moorish influence in its royal gardens including King Alfonso’s Alcazar at Cordoba and the Emir of Granada’s Alhambra. Both show the successful harmonisation of using symmetry and formal waterways, and sculptural and exotic trees to give that typical Moorish look.

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But there is more. The walls of castles and town houses become backdrops for bold red blooms. And of course, there is the magnificence of bougainvillea.

The March south westerly winds have been fierce but as fast as they blow the storm clouds in, they blow them out, and the sun breaks through.

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It’s getting warmer and the days are getting longer, especially as we have just changed to British Summer Time. The plants, so long asleep over the winter, are starting to sprout everywhere. And we still have the daffodils with their bright yellow pops of colour to herald the spring.

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The weak spring sun has brought strange visitors too – the wind surfers’ kites look like fabulous exotic birds flying in the bay.

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Not to be outdone, the surfers are riding the waves when they can find them, despite the cold- the water is less than 10 degrees at this time of year.

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Since these pictures were taken, the virus has arrived in our village and our world, like your’s, has been turned upside down. Nothing is stirring at the moment as we are “locked-down”, but it will pass. And the spring will arrive when it will be back to work in the garden to bring on all the new plants.

If you need a Zen moment and want to see a little more, click on the picture below and catch up on March in the Seaside Garden.