Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i The English Garden

Clare Coulson Clare is a former fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph turned garden writer and contributor to Gardenista, who gardens on the Suffolk coast. She visits Tattenhall Hall in Cheshire on page 38. Jenny Hendy Jenny’s plant-filled childhood led, by way of botany, to a career in garden design and writing. Book topics include topiary, one of her specialities, which features prominently in the gardens of Chirk Castle on page 30. Mimi Connolly Photographer Mimi specialises in gardens, artists and makers. With a prior background in the film industry, her interest spans analogue and digital techniques. Her images of Gravetye Manor are on page 20.…

• Wildflowers flourish in the thin soil of the front meadow, which sits on sandstone. The couples went on Great Dixter’s meadow study day (after failed attempts to establish wildflowers in the more lush meadow) and then used yellow rattle to reduce the vigour of the grass. • Bonfires are rare in this wildlife-friendly garden. Instead, Chris makes brash piles in areas not yet cultivated, which, over time, will break down and create new areas for planting. • “We planted the hazels because I wanted to have a wood quickly – they grow so fast,” says Jannie, of the small woodland area in the meadow that now provides shelter for shade-loving plants, including Martagon lilies, corydalis and arisaema – all sourced from Crûg Farm Plants in North Wales. • A…

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, WHEN FIONA Apthorp arrived at Eye Hall, north of Cambridge, she had no idea how much work would be involved in making a garden here. “With the all the naivety of youth, I fell in love with the romance of the place,” she recalls. “I should have realised what I was getting myself into when the vendor said, ‘It’s a good job you’re young!’ with a big smile on his face…” Back then, Fiona was working as a midwife and was also expecting her first baby. “I thought I would be able to manage the gardens, house and a job by myself, but the full scale of the project was soon revealed. Then, during further exploration, we found that the whole garden was surrounded by a moat…

“We aim to bring a touch of nostalgia to the greenhouse – a feeling of stepping back in time” PARHAM HOUSE, NESTLED IN THE SOUTH Downs of West Sussex, is one of the country’s finest examples of an Elizabethan house. Surrounding it are equally impressive 18th-century pleasure grounds and a four-acre walled garden, with herbaceous borders, cut flower and vegetable beds and an orchard. But the crowning glory of this garden has to be its abundantly planted greenhouse. Built in 1923 by Mackenzie and Moncur, who made bespoke glass constructions for many great estates, including Windsor Castle, the teak-framed, lean-to greenhouse is the sole remaining structure of a set of four that once formed an E-shape. “The section we know and love now used to be a service corridor that…

It’s not often that a designer is given free rein when creating a garden – clients usually have a long list of requirements that somehow need to be shoehorned into a space. But the owners of this period home and 23-acre site in Gloucestershire, a couple with two small children, were happy to put their faith in Marcus Barnett. “It really was one of those dream scenarios,” says Marcus. “The clients told me that they were contemporary, modern and playful, and they wanted the garden to reflect those attributes. Other than that, they said it was over to me.” The result is a modern country garden that sits gracefully within the surrounding Cotswold landscape. Even the alpacas and llamas in the field beyond (also owned by the family) don’t look…

“Some of my best sculptures are inspired by little things that I find when gardening,” says Anne Curry. “I am passionate about my garden and love working in it. While weeding my hellebore patch one day, I found a seedpod that really caught my imagination. I keep finding extraordinary forms that I want to translate into a much bigger size. The most humble bud, leaf or pod is a miraculous moment of life on the move.” The shapes Anne makes are first carved from huge blocks of polystyrene. A mould is made, after which the sculpture can be cast in resin or bronze. Sycamore keys, physalis seed cases and the opening buds of an iris or a magnolia have all inspired sculptures, many of which are on display in Anne’s…

Tom Stogdon usually works with stone and slate, his pieces sitting easily in the garden. “They don’t jar with their surroundings, which appeals to a lot of people,” he says. Each piece comprises meticulously placed individual stones that fit together to create textural sculptures of varying forms such as ammonite spirals, circles and intricate screens, each taking around three months to make – although he tends to work on several pieces simultaneously to prevent ‘snowblindness’. “My pieces tend to be abstracts; their simplicity appeals,” he says. The technique harks back to how his career in sculpture began. As a fourth-generation greengrocer from London, he initially made elaborate figures from fruit and vegetables. Serendipity plays a big part in Tom’s sculptures. “Inspiration doesn’t come from anything specific,” he notes. “Often I’ll…

“There are a lot of difficult elements in this garden,” says designer John Everiss. “Chelsea does allow you to be experimental, which I love. It’s quite hard to go to a private client and say: ‘I’ve never done one before, but I want to make a twelve-foot-high Perspex sculpture.’” The sculpture is presenting John with his biggest challenge. It’s a 3D model of Gemma Peace, daughter of and carer for Gill King, who died from myeloma in 2016. Gill’s husband Peter, who also lost his brother to the disease, is fundraising and working tirelessly to raise awareness, and is a driving force behind this garden. Gemma has been 3D-scanned to create the giant sculpture: 3.6m of layered Perspex rising from boulders and planting, blowing seed from her outstretched hand to…

“This is my first show garden anywhere,” says garden designer Jonathan Snow. “I know there is a well-trodden path to Chelsea, but I had an idea that needed a big space and it has just ended up this way. It is just the way it happened.” Jonathan’s big idea developed in the Cape winelands in South Africa, which he first visited some two years ago. With its dramatic scenery, important Fynbos biome and timeless 18th-century wine estates, the region provided him with a wealth of design inspiration. He settled on the idea of including various elements found in the landscape in a design: the homesteads, with their Cape-Dutch vernacular architecture and classic gardens that combine traditional English plants with South African native species, were important, but so too was the…

“I strive to create proportions that are correct in the design to realise a comfortable space for whoever the user, and to ensure that the house which the design surrounds sits comfortably within its embrace.” It is not an exaggeration to say that John Brookes has influenced us all, whether we are designers or gardeners. Like many of us, John’s association with gardens began with his parents, growing vegetables for the family table during the War,›and then undertaking a three-year apprenticeship with the Parks Department in Nottingham. Next, he worked with the doyennes of landscape design at the time, Brenda Colvin and Dame Sylvia Crowe, when he was exposed to the art and people that continued to inspire him for the rest of his life. He met many of the…

“Foxgloves suit my style of garden. They are very easily understood and feel very uncontrived” “There is something quintessentially British about foxgloves,” says Terry Baker. Indeed, they are one of our most spectacular wildflowers and one that comes and goes in many places. ‘Comes and goes’ is crucial to understanding them, since Digitalis purpurea is a biennial, which needs to re-seed every year if the plant is to stay in one place. In some gardens they persist and spread, but not in all; the seeds, however, live for decades in the soil and will germinate whenever the soil is disturbed, exposing buried seed to the light. Digitalis species tend to be short-lived, which makes for particular problems in running a National Collection. Just as well then that the collection is…

The Beautiful Gardens category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year (Competition 11) is always hotly contested. This year, Nicky Flint has taken the top prize for her early morning image of Great Dixter. “Nicky has created a composition with pronounced form, distinct layers and beautiful light,” says judge Tyrone McGlinchey, managing director of IGPOTY. “As our eyes follow the planting, we are invited to discover the wonder of a new day.” Ten images from this category are featured over these pages, and all the winning images will be on display in exhibitions at Ironbridge’s Jackfield Tile Museum from 3 May to 17 September, and at York Museum Gardens from 9 May to 7 August. Enter Competition 12 by 31 October at igpoty.com WINNER Beautiful Gardens Nicky Flint Through…

How long did it take to photograph the book? I went to Corfu several times over a couple of years, mostly in spring and autumn. It is so hot in summer that things just burn to a frazzle, which isn’t very good from a photographic point of view, so shooting has to be limited to the gentler seasons. What would you say was your most memorable day of photography out there? It would have to be walking up Mount Pantokrator, quite a high mountain at a little over 900m, which is distinctive because it rises up from the sea. Different types of vegetation grow at different altitudes, so walking up it is fascinating. The vegetation becomes more sparse the higher you climb, but on the lower reaches are some smallholdings,…

May is the month of fresh greens, frothy blossom and lush foliage. It’s my favourite time of year in the garden, when plants burst into full growth, as yet unspoilt by summer’s heat or unwanted pests – everything is perfect. At William Robinson’s former home, Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, the subtle colours of early spring are replaced by ever-increasing vibrancy: late tulips, the first poppies and alliums. It’s the same at Chirk Castle in North Wales, where euphorbias join rhododendrons and unfurling emerald-green shuttlecock ferns. Is there anything more exciting than watching a well-planted garden spring forth at this time of year? Well, maybe. This month also brings a long-anticipated day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: the reopening of its iconic Temperate House after five years of intensive…

This simple spring project will brighten up any space, bringing the natural world indoors HOW TO MAKE... A wild spring wreath Materials Florist’s scissors 1 pre-made, natural willow, plaited vine wreath Linen or rope to hang Flowers & foliage 7 stems of white achillea 10 stems of yellow achillea 8 stems of purple basil 3 stems of purple clematis 8 stems of cotoneaster foliage 2 stems of white delphinium 5 stems of fennel 5 stems of lavender foliage 5 stems of flowering mint 7 stems of waxflower 10 wild grasses Instructions 1 Prepare your chosen stems by cutting them diagonally into a variety of lengths between 15 and 30cm. Start at the top and weave the foliage stems in a clockwise direction through the wreath. There’s no need to secure…

CAMASSIA LEICHTLINII CAERULEA GROUP These wonderful bulbs are an ideal subject for a meadow of moist but well-drained fertile soil, where they will send up their tall elegant flower spikes of mauve-blue in late May and June each year. LUPINUS ‘MY CASTLE ’ This magenta variety is a Russell hybrid from the Band of Nobles lupin series, which is noted for its strong, single colours. Watch out for slugs when plants are young and cut off spent flower spikes to encourage more to form. AQUILEGIAS Granny’s bonnets are famous for self-seeding, which means they are perfect for creating the informal, relaxed look that William Robinson so admired. Different coloured seedlings will appear, so weed out the ones that don’t suit your planting scheme. DELPHINIUMS At…

• At Chirk, we begin clipping the yews in late August (after bird nesting season) and continue into autumn, while major restoration pruning is carried out in the winter months. • Battery-powered shears allow for freedom of movement and dispense with cables, which can be a trip hazard. They are also much quieter for visitors than petrol hedge trimmers. • Step ladders are used to cut to a certain height, but a cherry picker is used for safety when we’re working on some of the taller elements. • Aged yew topiary and hedging does eventually collapse and bulge out under its own weight, so a programme of restoration is ongoing. Plants can be cut right back to the main stems because yew readily regenerates from old wood. • Hedges are…

A whimsical tumble of grasses and wildflowers evokes the gentle abundance of country pasture THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER GARDEN designers will interpret their clients’ briefs in the best possible way, to arrive at a garden that suits both the tastes and spaces at hand. So to glimpse a designer’s own garden is a rare thing that offers an intriguing glimpse at their personal style. When garden designer Butter Wakefield moved into her Victorian property in Ravenscourt Park, West London, in 1991, the garden she found was so overgrown it verged on dereliction. “Although I was lucky enough to have an apple tree, a pear tree, and a Magnolia grandiflora,” she notes. At the time it was no taller than the garden wall, but today the magnolia reaches well beyond the…

• A successful spring garden is all down to winter preparation – mulch the soil in February with as much organic matter as possible. If you have horse manure, let it rot down for three to four years before using. • If the weather is mild in February and March, weed the beds as much as you can. Any work you do early on in the garden, means you will really be able to enjoy the spring and early summer. • Plant and move plants in autumn. Refreshing the bulb stocks has to be done every year at Eye Hall because the squirrels take so many of them. • Create spaces for eating, sitting and being outdoors. Our glasshouse is multipurpose – it’s used for propagation in winter and as…

IPOMOEA INDICA This species of morning glory boasts beautifully shaded flowers of purple-and -blue, from late spring to autumn. PLUMBAGO AURICULATA A fantastic greenhouse climber, either in a pot or planted into a border, but it will need training on a trellis or wires. IOCHROMA CYANEUM This refined shrub has felty leaves and narrow tubular flowers and is a relative of angel’s trumpets (brugmansia). PELARGONIUM ‘LORD BUTE’ Sumptuously dark flowers on this classic cultivar with a long flowering period. HELIOPHILA LONGIFOLIA This low-growing tender annual produces a profusion of bright blue flowers over fine, thread-like foliage. COBAEA SCANDENS Also known as the cup and saucer vine for obvious reasons, this climber flowers almost continuously under glass. HELIOTROPIUM This crinkly-leaved annual is also known as ‘cherry pie’ for its…

Visit any renowned garden or gaze at any medal-winning plot at Chelsea this month, and there’s a good chance a piece of sculpture will catch the eye. A work of outdoor art, carefully placed, creates a focal point in a way that plants can’t: striking, thought-provoking, or simply beautiful, sculpture is truly the finishing touch that’s needed to take a garden from good to great. Over the following pages, five sculptors explain their inspiration and how their chosen material shapes and influences their work. Each medium results in art with a different style and feel but all evoke the magic of the garden and add to its mood.…

Is there any greater show on Earth? We doubt it. Its planning begins years in advance of the event. Designers and design assistants travel the world for inspiration; horticultural suppliers choose only the most idiosyncratic trees and shrubs; plant breeders select, cast out and select again; logistics managers master red tape, communication channels and spreadsheets; installation specialists number rocks, assemble steel structures and build houses; planting teams extract weeds with tweezers. At Chelsea there is no dream too large to be executed, no detail too small to be attended to. Over these eight pages we celebrate some of those who make this remarkable show happen.…

The triumph of Jo Thompson’s show garden this year began with a doodle on a page and resulted in a twisting, curving steel-and-chain structure, which wraps its way around the garden on the diagonal and has taken eight months to design. It has had Allan McRobie and his fellow academics at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge scratching their heads: nothing like this has ever been made before. “We’ve been finding out how to do it because we’ve been quite keen for it to look different from different angles, says Jo. “It has been particularly hair-raising and we’ve had lots of sleepless nights!” Last summer, Jo was approached by sponsor Wedgwood to create a garden that embodied the keywords of ‘innovative’, ‘female’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘luxury’. “I like…

“We’re a cog in a big machine, but the cogs are all as important as each other,” says Mark Straver, CEO of Hortus Loci, one of the companies that grows and sources the plant material needed to fill many of the show gardens at Chelsea. Having supplied plants to over 70 full-sized gardens, there is little Mark doesn’t know about what this involves. “Perennials we can grow ourselves, but designers will also ask for trees that are a specific shape and 40 years old, or hedging that is 20 years old. Most of these are a one-off – there aren’t any just down the road – and my job is to find the best that is available. The more you travel the more you know where to get things, and…

1933 Born in Durham, to parents who gardened. Attended Durham School. His mother was artistic and his father was a civil engineer. 1950 Travels to Europe, then does National Service before taking horticulture at the Durham County School of Agriculture. 1956 Starts working with Brenda Colvin and Dame Sylvia Crowe, then joins Architectural Design and Construction magazine. 1962 Designs his first show garden for Chelsea, saying: “It was the first garden about design rather than merely showcasing plants.” 1980 Admits the first design students to Denmans, a garden leased from Joyce Robinson. Teaches and designs around the world. 2004 Receives an MBE for Garden Design and Services to Horticulture from HM the Queen on New Year’s Day at Buckingham Palace.…

There is something nostalgic about lupins. Perhaps it’s their association with cottage gardens and idyllic pastoral planting, or long-held memories of their vibrant colours and peppery scent, often discovered during childhood in a grandparent’s garden. There is something old-fashioned about these plants, with their sturdy flower spikes in unabashedly bold colours, yet at the same time they’re riding a wave of fashion – in recent years, they’ve been the stars of many a Chelsea show garden. Whether you care about fashion or not, add lupins to your late-spring and early-summer borders, and you can be sure of a colourful show. Sarah Conibear was head gardener at Clovelly Court in north Devon when lupins first captured her attention. She had watched a gardening programme on television, featuring the lupin collection of…

It’s May and greenhouses are bursting at the seams as all our beloved charges grow and develop. Hope is in the air for the best growing season ever, an annual illusion that always carries a gardener forward no matter what the growing conditions and resources. For those with limited space in their glasshouse, various crops can be accommodated in different ways to use the available growing space well and maximise the total number of plants grown. All it takes is a little imagination and forethought. Some tomato varieties, for example, grow well in hanging baskets, which will free up ground space for other plants. Try varieties such as ‘Garden Pearl’, ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ and ‘Tumbling Tom Red’ in a basket for a glorious mass of hanging cherry tomatoes, which will…

When Decimus Burton’s extraordinary Palm House opened at Kew in 1848, then the largest of its kind ever to be built, the world gasped in astonishment. Burton’s star, already in the ascendant, had reached dizzying heights. Glory was all very nice, but now he faced a new challenge. How on earth could he top innovation on that scale? He managed it with Kew’s magnificent Temperate House – twice the size of the Palm House and still the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse. The first central block was opened in 1863 and filled with the results of Kew’s active plant-collecting programme – plus a few surprises of its own. Underfloor heating, drainpipes concealed within the building’s pillars and a boiler with chimneys cunningly hidden inside ornamental urns on the roof were…

WOOTTENS OF WENHASTON Established for 25 years, Woottens is a traditional plant nursery specialising in hardy perennials, which are grown and propagated on their site in rural Suffolk. Woottens also specialises in Irises, Auriculas, Pelargoniums, Hemerocallis & Hardy Geraniums. They offer mail order, design services and horticultural courses. The nursery is open to the public every Saturday and select open days throughout the year with qualified staff offering expert advice. See website for more details. Tel: 01502 478258 info@woottensplants.co.uk | www.woottensplants.comWoottens of Wenhaston, Wenhaston, Suffolk, IP19 9HF SPRING REACH NURSERY Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses. STARRING NOW Alliums, camassias, clematis, peonies, lilacs and wisterias. Visit one of Surrey’s finest nurseries – a gardener’s paradise! Just five…

BUCKFAST ABBEY Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0EE Tel: 01364 645500 | www.buckfast.org.uk Discover the award-winning gardens at Buckfast Abbey as it celebrates 1000 years of history. The beautiful and tranquil environment is carefully tended to with organic gardening methods that keep the gardens lusciously green year-round. On 2 June 2018, the abbey is hosting the Buckfast Abbey Garden Fayre, where the Millennium Garden will be unveiled. The garden won silver and the People’s Choice Award at RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017. There will be over 120 stalls, as well as talks from gardening experts such as Toby Buckland. OPEN: The gardens are open year-round with frequent walk and talks available and an annual garden fair. GREAT CHALFIELD MANOR AND GARDEN Near Melksham, Wiltshire SN12 8NH Tel:01225782239|www.nationaltrust.org.uk/great-chalfield-manor-and-garden A monkey, soldiers…

“Each like a tower of meringues, a pyramid of crumpled white florets with pale lemon centres” As a five-year-old I remember collecting conkers, rootling about beneath the horse chestnut trees like a small animal; rummaging in the fallen leaves for the spiky green cases to reveal the shining mahogany-coloured seed and stowing them away in the saddlebag of my tricycle. At school, conkers became objects of ‘nature study’: sticky-buds in jam jars. We watched as buds split and leaves unfurled like gawky half-fledged nestlings, not unlike ourselves. This was when we learned how the horse chestnut gets its name – from the horseshoe-shaped scars left on the stems when the leaves fall – and that white horse chestnuts have seven-fingered leaves, while red ones have five. Moving to Dublin in…

• William Robinson started planting bulbs in turf in the wild garden 130 years ago, and we are still following his tradition, buying in new supplies each year and planting to create ever-increasing impact. We plant 8,000 to 10,000 bulbs every autumn. • Masses of camassias have been added to the turf in the two-acre orchard in recent years – they coincide perfectly with the apple blossom. Our favourite is C. leichtlinii Caerulea Group. The white variety (C. leichtlinii subsp. leichtlinii) seems to establish quickly and seeds around, too. • In the Flower Garden, colourful tulips help us recover from the dreariness of winter. This year we have deliberately concentrated on planting late-flowerers to coincide with the re-opening of the new restaurant in May. Orange-pink ‘Menton’ is probably the most…

John Lawson, a historic greenhouse expert from Harrier Garden Developments, advised on the restoration of Fiona’s greenhouse. He identified it as a very rare example of a lean-to greenhouse made by Birmingham company Clarke & Hope around 1851. There are only a few remaining examples of these fine glasshouses – including at the Royal Frogmore Gardens, Arundel Castle and Osborne House. Originally they were known as ‘Metallic Hot Houses’. Beneath the layers of gloss paint, the glazing bars were discovered to be copper. The greenhouse was too dilapidated to be restored in situ, so it was dismantled and taken to John’s workshop near Bury St Edmunds. Most of the glazing and panes were salvaged, but one whole gable end was missing and had to be made from scratch. Today the…

• Under glass, plants will be almost a month ahead of the rest of the garden, so their demands are quite high. At this time of year it’s good to get into a rhythm of feeding with a high-potash fertiliser every 10 days. • Allow plenty of ventilation – it’s better to have a few good specimen plants rather than having a lot of poor quality plants crammed together. • Deadhead regularly and remove dead or dying foliage. • Don’t overwater, since it can be hard to revive plants that have got too wet. Pushing your finger into the compost is a good way to judge if watering is necessary, but with sensitive plants, such as species begonias and pelargoniums, I always tell my team to water 25% of the…

“Glass acts as a lens. It turns the view of your garden upside down,” says Neil Wilkin. “It reflects its surroundings, so if you have a garden full of flowers, trees and green natural colour, it will be picked up by the glass. The more clear glass you can get into the piece the better, but my latest work involves a lot more colour, drawn from nature.” Neil says that creating the components of his pieces is a fairly quick process, once the molten glass has been prepared: “When it’s hot, you gather a bit, like gathering honey out of a jar, allow it to cool then gather again, four or five times to build up enough material to work with. The difficulty is keeping the glass pure and the…

A desire to create art with more of a sense of permanence led Ian Turnock away from his career as a graphic designer to one as a sculptor. “Graphic design is disposable,” he says. “it’s gone after a few years. This is more interesting and more personal.” Ian works in steel and is inspired by the patterns and structures he observes in nature, particularly the silhouettes, shadows and movement of tree branches and leaves. He has always loved trees, he says, and it was photographs of tree canopies taken while out walking that initially triggered the idea for his digitally cut pieces, which are either free-standing or can be wall-mounted. “Metal is very strong and unforgiving, but the idea was to create something that looked fragile, lace-like and intricate,” he…

No one knows better than Katherine Potsides just what a monumental effort goes into putting on the Chelsea Flower Show each year. She’s the Royal Horticultural Society’s show manager for Chelsea, responsible for making the annual spectacle come to fruition. “It’s in the thousands,” she says, of the number of people who work on the show with her. From the end of April, when the site team first arrive at the Royal Hospital to start marking out its blank turf, to the end of May when thousands of caterers, security staff, cleaners and others descend, countless people make a vital contribution. “The site is temporary,” Katherine explains, “so telephone lines, IT, cabins, fencing and security, all have to be put in during the first two weeks. Then people arrive to…

If there is one display that epitomises the ebullience of the meticulously arranged stands in the Great Pavilion, it is that of David Austin Roses, which has been attending since 1982. This year the company launches three new roses: ‘Tottering-By-Gently’, ‘Emily Brontë’ and ‘The Mill on the Floss’, which are the culmination of a decade-long process in which hundreds of possible new varieties are whittled down to just a handful. “Every year we pick out those that might have something,” David explains. “We’re looking for the very best. Of 200 you might have 20 favourites, which you then whittle down to two or three. You have to be tough.” David Austin devises a new Chelsea stand every two years, but uses alternate years to finesse the design. “This is a…

“The first time we got into Chelsea, 24 years ago, we had a tiny booth,” says sculptor David Harber. “Then we were offered a stand on the showground, and for the past 10 years we’ve been on Main Avenue, which is like Mayfair and Park Lane on the Monopoly board!” Now, David is crossing over the avenue, from a trade stand to his first-ever show garden – “a very daunting prospect,” as he freely admits. The concept of his garden is momentous: it reflects on humanity’s relationship with the environment, from the Bronze Age to the present, charting the impact we have had. Each stage is represented by a bespoke sculpture, including the centrepiece: Aeon. “The entire time I’ve been making sculpture, we’ve had to find a way to make…

• STAKING Varieties such as the named cultivars Sarah sells, with sturdy stems and strong growth, shouldn’t need staking. Weaker seed-raised varieties may need support to prevent them from toppling over. • DEADHEADING It’s a good idea to deadhead lupins after the first flush of flowers has faded, because it stops the plants wasting their energy on producing seeds. You might also get a second flush of flowers in late summer. “It’s not quite as dramatic as the first flush, but you will get more flowers,” says Sarah. • DIVISION You can propagate plants by division, in early spring or autumn “either before they flower or well after,” Sarah cautions. “If they’re big plants they can take some dividing – you’ll need a spade,” she adds. • COLLECTING SEED If…

‘MOUNTAIN MAGIC’ This well-flavoured and blight-resistant cordon tomato variety is stocked by Thompson & Morgan. These are great sliced in salads or cooked into sauces. ‘CUORE DI BUE’ This ribbed, Italian beefsteak tomato delivers late-maturing, large, meaty fruits with excellent flavour. A cordon variety, it’s available from Thompson & Morgan. ‘COSTOLUTO FIORENTINO’ A good beefsteak variety to start off with, fruiting more willingly and more prolifically than others – and it’s delicious. Seed is available from Sarah Raven. ‘BRANDYWINE’ A wonderful heritage variety, dating back to 1885, which has stood the test of time. It produces large ribbed fruits and is available from Thompson & Morgan. ‘SUNGOLD’ Widely available and hard to beat, ‘Sungold’ produces prolific crops of small yellow-orange cherry tomatoes with a sweet taste. This is another cordon…

Botanical Brain Balms by Nicolette Perry and Elaine Perry, Filbert Press, £14.99 There is no shortage of publications about the healing properties of plants that can be grown in the garden – the topic is age-old and interest in it seems to show no sign of slowing, especially with so many contemporary medicines being partly botanical in origin. Much of the genre has focused on physical afflictions – comfrey for healing, lavender as an antiseptic – and has an element of folklore to it. Botanical Brain Balms is subtitled Medicinal Plants for Memory, Mood and Mind, and concentrates instead on other ailments prevalent in our modern age. It’s written by scientists: Elaine Perry is Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, while co-author Nicolette Perry followed a degree in biology…