Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i The English Garden

Mark Bolton Mark is a well known gardens and interiors photographer and has been shooting for magazines for 20 years. He loves gardening and cricket and lives in Devon. His images of Miserden feature on page 50. Alex Mitchell Alex has written books including Crops in Tight Spots, Gardening on a Shoestring and The Edible Balcony and is the gardening columnist for The Evening Standard. She explores Exbury’s plant collection on page 116. Daniel Pembrey Daniel is a novelist and features writer with a first class degree in history and architectural history from Edinburgh University. On page 95, he explains why landscape follies aren’t such a folly after all.…

Herefordshire The creation of its owner, garden designer Cary Goode, Rhodds Farm contains an extensive range of horticultural delights. A formal garden featuring beds of Iris ‘Silver Edge’ and Alchemilla mollis with Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’ leads the visitor to a dovecote, while double herbaceous borders in hot colours and a new arboretum with woodland planting create acres of interest. The large gravel garden is a recent addition, set in front of the tea pavilion. Several ponds include one created for wildlife: lined with puddled clay and fed by rainwater, it’s home to newts, frogs and dragonflies. Rhodds Farm, Lyonshall, Herefordshire HR5 3LW. Opens for the NGS on 7-8 June and 5-6 July, 11am-5pm. Home-made teas available. Adults £5; children free.…

Beardless Iris Day 1 June, Herefordshire This event, hosted by The British Iris Society, includes talks, lunch, a visit to the national collection of Siberian Irises at Aulden Farm and afternoon tea. Tickets: £20. beardlessiris.org Chatsworth Flower Show 5-9 June, Derbyshire There will be 13 gardens at Chatsworth this year, including a new ‘mindfulness’ category and an RHS Wildlife Garden. Tickets: from £27.50. Tel: 0844 9959664; rhs.org.uk Gardeners’ fair at Burton Agnes Hall & Gardens 15 & 16 June, Yorkshire Browse over 50 stalls selling plants and products at this East Yorkshire estate (right), with garden rooms and art. Tickets: £11. Tel: 01262 490324; burtonagnes.com Garden Museum Literary Festival 21 & 22 June, Norfolk This year’s event at Houghton Hall features 30 speakers, garden tours and an outdoor sculpture exhibition.…

Frothy clumps of creamy-white Filipendula ulmaria, also known as ‘queen of the meadow’, are often considered unlucky. An old Welsh story warns against falling asleep in a field of meadowsweet due to the deep, inescapable slumber it will summon, while Welsh mythology describes the creation of fair Blodeuwedd›(‘flower faced’) from oak, ›broom, and meadowsweet by magicians Gwydion and Math. In other parts of the UK, nurses warned against sniffing meadowsweet due to a belief it would cause fits.…

ON GOLDEN EVENINGS THIS SUMMER, the dramatic, compelling notes of Don Giovanni will spill out over the Opera Garden as Wormsley hosts the 30th annual Garsington Opera season. Mozart’s two-act piece about Don Juan, the fabled libertine and seducer, was first performed in Prague in 1787 to great acclaim and has remained one of the world’s most popular operas ever since. At the time of that première, in the wooded flint and chalk hills of the Chilterns, Wormsley in Buckinghamshire was already around 600 years old. In the 16th-century the estate belonged to John Scrope, but passed through his sister to become the property of the Fanes. John Fane, born in 1749, became the 10th Earl of Westmorland and famously eloped to Gretna Green with Sarah Child in 1782, against…

LIKE ALL ANCIENT HOUSES, CAWDOR Castle has changed over time, and the same is true of its garden. Many generations have left their mark, and for the past 40 years, Angelika, the Dowager Countess Cawdor, has been making her own artistic contribution to its historic walled gardens and peaceful woodland walks. Second wife to Hugh, the 6th Earl Cawdor, Angelika, who was born in Czechoslovakia and came to Cawdor via Paris, and what was then Rhodesia, worked on ideas for both house and garden with her husband in the years prior to his death in 1993. Since then she has continued to care for his legacy. From a gardening point of view, it has been an ongoing learning process. “I don’t really have a gardening background,” she states, frankly. “My…

‘WESTERLAND’ An underrated climber with glossy leaves and luminous, apricot-orange flowers offers strong scent over a long period. ‘DELLA BALFOUR’ Pink-tinged, pale-orange flowers on this repeat-flowering sturdy climber, which can also be grown as a shrub without support. ‘CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU’ Sumptuous burgundy flowers on this Gallica rose with nearthornless stems. ‘ALCHYMIST’ A vigorous modern climber with quartered flowers that unusually combine peach-orange tones with pink, fading with age. ‘ST CLARE’ A seldom-seen shrub rose with biscuit-yellow, fragrant flowers. This is a compact grower suitable for containers. ‘APPLEJACK’ This pretty, modern, shrub rose produces lots of loose, semi-double flowers and bushy growth, but sadly no scent.…

SCILLA PERUVIANA This vibrant spring-flowering bulb does best given a position in full sun, and often flowers better after a hot summer. CLEMATIS x VEDRARIENSIS ‘HIGHDOWN’ Selected by Sir Frederick Stern for its bronzy young foliage and pale flowers. PAEONIA ROCKII The plant at Highdown is a ‘grandchild’ of the original found by Joseph Rock in the garden of a Tibetan monastery. DAVIDIA INVOLUCRATA VAR. VILMORINIANA Stunning white bracts on a 12m tree; this variety is best suited to our climate. PAEONIA LUDLOWII A large 3m tall tree peony bearing huge, bowl-shaped, golden-yellow blooms throughout early summer. PAEONIA DELAVAYI Another tree peony, this time with deep crimson-red, scented flowers and good foliage on a 2m tall shrub. STAPHYLEA HOLOCARPA…

• Design Anoushka Feiler, Bestique. Tel: 0330 1138113; bestique.co.uk• Construction Breathe Garden Design. Tel: 01737 554678; breathegardendesign.com• Oak-framed garden house & bridge Designed by Bestique; both made by Carpenter Oak. Tel: 01803 732900; carpenteroak.com• Yorkstone Paving Johnsons Wellfield. Tel: 01484 652311; johnsons-wellfield.co.uk• Gravel CED. Tel: 01708 867237; cedstone.co.uk• 3D sculptures Designed by Bestique; made by 3D Print UK. Tel: 020 8692 5208; 3dprint-uk.co.uk• Natural swimming pool Designed by Bestique; made by Gartenart Pools. Tel: 020 7183 3333; gartenart.co.uk• Dedon Leaf Beach Chair Leisure Plan. Tel: 01279 816001; leisureplan.co.uk• Table and benches Sourced by Anoushka Feiler from Pigeon Vintage. Tel: 07930 357362; pigeonvintage.co.uk• Reproduction chairs Tolix-style chairs supplied by Cult Furniture. Tel: 020 8185 6960; cultfurniture.com…

SITE While the Chelsea show gardens demonstrate what can be done within a compact site, more space is ideal if you’re building an ‘eyecatcher’. TIME A folly can become a highly personal project; it is important not to rush the process. Constable spent a year considering how his ideas would work from different angles throughout the seasons. ADVICE Good advice is key. Tim Redwood, who advised David Constable, had knowledge of different designs and tools such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) to develop ideas. MATERIALS Access to the right stone, brick or other materials is vital; Constable availed himself of Redwood’s ‘folly graveyard’ (architectural salvage yard) in addition to Redwood’s stock items. BUDGET This will very much depend on the size of your folly and materials used. The £22,000 Constable…

Not surprisingly, given their origins, bearded irises need well-drained soil and full sun; they also need good nutrition, and division every few years, since crowded plants will not flower well. Foliage and flowering shoots grow from fat rhizomes, which grow at the soil surface; it is important that these are not shaded by other plants. Every two to three years, the rhizomes should be dug up between July and September, the old sections discarded and the younger parts removed and replanted. Feeding with a high-phosphate or high-potash, slow-release fertiliser, such as bonemeal, is beneficial on poorer soils, or where the plants have been grown for many years. Manure or other rich sources of nitrogen should be avoided since they will inhibit flowering. Bearded irises are plants to grow in splendid…

‘MUNSTEAD WOOD’ Deep crimson to purple, velvety, sumptuous blooms with a strong fragrance, from David Austin. Height: 1m. ‘BOSCOBEL’ Shrub rose with extraordinary colouring from rich salmon to deep pink and shades in between. Height: 90cm. ‘QUEEN OF SWEDEN’ Shallow-cupped David Austin rose in soft pink with a light scent. Growth is upright and very healthy. Height: 90cm. ‘YVES PIAGET’ An all-time favourite and the rose that has started many an obsession. Bred by Meilland in France. Height: 90cm. ‘HARRY EDLAND’ This dusky lilac floribunda rose has an exquisite classic rose fragrance. Feed generously. Height: 80cm. ‘TRANQUILITY’ A shrub rose with creamy-white blooms and a light fragrance. Bred by David Austin. Height: 1.5m.…

Tropaeolum majus ‘Black Velvet’ Try this dark-coloured variety of nasturtium from Chiltern Seeds. The compact plants reach 30cm, and its flowers, leaves and seeds are edible. Borago officinalis Borage is loved by bees and is a cottage-garden classic. The flowers can be added to salads and Pimm’s, while the leaves taste of cucumber. Mr Fothergill’s can supply. Allium schoenoprasum This hardy perennial produces edible lilac flowers throughout summer. Grow chives along a border in the vegetable garden where they can also act as a pest deterrent. Viola hybrids Hybridisation of pansies and smaller-flowered violas has delivered a great array of colour options for pretty edible flowers. Crystallise them to decorate cakes.…

PINKCURRANTS Pinkcurrants are rarer than their red and white cousins but are much sweeter. Their soft blush brings a wonderful tint to jellies for use in dishes savoury or sweet. MALABAR SPINACH Basella rubra is one of many leafy greens broadly termed ‘spinach’. All parts of this vine from Asia can be eaten, including its appealing red stems. Treat it as an annual. CORNICHON ‘PICCOLO DI PARIGI’ This small cucumber is ideal for pickling but, like all cucumbers, it needs a warm sheltered space in which to thrive and the best results can be achieved in a greenhouse.…

Hannah McVicar’s botanical prints are both lively and exceptional. In one example, jaunty teasel heads intertwine with frilly stems of fennel, almost as if engaging in a dance. “I love my work to be recognisable and for my plants to have character, so that people can relate my illustrations back to me,” says the Bristol-based botanical illustrator and printmaker. For as long as she can remember, Hannah has communicated through drawing. At school, dyslexia meant she found words more of a struggle, so her talent for illustration was nurtured. Now, illustration forms the backbone of her work and is the chief occupier of her days, along with a small cocker spaniel named Rufous (spelled with an ‘o’, the Latin term for the rusty colour of his coat). Her early life…

What is wildlife gardening? Wildlife gardening is gardening with wildlife in mind. It includes planting flowers for bees and other pollinators, native plants to encourage moths and butterflies to lay their eggs, providing leaf and log piles to shelter animals, and digging ponds. Providing a space for wildlife to feed and breed is central to the idea of gardening for wildlife. What brought you to wildlife gardening? I’ve always been a gardener, since I was a small child, and wildlife gardening is an extension of that – who wouldn’t want to be joined by birds and butterflies? Ten years ago I found a bumblebee nest in an old duvet and had to move it: I’ve been obsessed with bees, and gardening for bees, ever since. You argue for a change…

LACOCK ABBEY BOTANIC GARDEN Near Melksham, Wiltshire, SN15 2LG Tel: 01249 730459 | www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lacock The Abbey, located at the heart of the village within its own woodland grounds and botanic garden, is a quirky country house of various architectural styles, built upon the foundations of a former nunnery. With herbaceous borders, a glasshouse bursting with grapes, succulents and flowering plants plus a healing herb bed, the botanic garden is a must-see in the summer months. OPEN: Daily from Saturday 16 February to Sunday 3 November 2019, 10.30am to 5.30pm. Please see website for admission, directions and parking. THE BISHOP’S PALACE & GARDENS, WELLS Off Market Place, Wells, Somerset BA5 2PD Tel: 01749 988111 | www.bishopspalace.org.uk Over 14 acres of spectacular RHS partner gardens, including picturesque, romantic, formal and Victorian styles,…

ASHWOOD NURSERIES A traditional working nursery situated in the West Midlands. We specialise in Hellebores, Hardy Cyclamen, Salvias, Hepaticas, Dwarf Conifers, Hydrangeas, Lewisias, Snowdrops, Primula auriculas and offer many more choice plants. We feel Ashwood Nurseries is a plantsman’s paradise. Our mail order service sends plants, garden essentials and gifts to UK and EU destinations. Special events throughout the year. Please visit our website for more details. Open daily. Tel: 01384 401996 mailorder@ashwoodnurseries.com|www.ashwoodnurseries.com Ashwood Lower Lane, Kingswinford, West Midlands DY6 0AE RV ROGER LTD Family-run, third generation nurserymen, growing a huge range of roses, fruit trees and hardy stock on a 200 acre site in the Vale of Pickering since 1913. Among a huge range of plants, we offer over 650 varieties of roses (bare root & containerised) available by…

What is it that makes a garden an ‘English’ garden – in the atmospheric sense of the word, rather than the geographical? For an answer to that question, turn the pages to the gardens we’re featuring in this issue – every single one of them quintessentially English to a tee. For many it’s the plants, and especially roses, that define it. Look no further than the Tudor-inspired garden at Cowdray in West Sussex for romantic and fragrant roses galore. For others, it’s artfully masterminded herbaceous borders. You’d be hard pushed to better those at Town Place in East Sussex, Wormsley in Buckinghamshire or Miserden in the Cotswolds. Walled gardens conjure the English garden feel in an instant, and the one at The Laundry in North Wales, undergoing a thoughtful restoration,…

ROSA ‘FERDINAND PICHARD’ Candy stripes and a strong fragrance make this old shrub rose quite the showstopper. ALLIUM ‘AMBASSADOR’ Grow this giant AGM variety in well-drained soil. It’s perfect for cutting and a magnet for bees. DIGITALIS PURPUREA The cottage-garden classic, which self-seeds prolifically and is loved by pollinators. It’s happily tolerant of shady spots. PHLOMIS RUSSELIANA The spires of this attractive perennial, also known as Turkish sage, reach about 90cm tall. PAEONIA ‘VICTOIRE DE LA MARNE’ A herbaceous peony with old-fashioned flowers in luxuriant shades of pink. Grow in full sun. PAPAVER ‘PATTY’S PLUM’ This Papaver orientale cultivar produces deep-plum-coloured blooms during May and June.…

LOOK OUT ACROSS THE BROAD LAWN FROM an equally spacious terrace, with the vast catslide roof of an ancient Sussex farmhouse behind you and it is easy to imagine that this rather grandly compartmentalised garden is of a similar vintage to the famous gardens at Gravetye, Sissinghurst and perhaps even Hidcote. Certainly these great gardens provided much inspiration, and you’ll spot their hallmarks everywhere: there are substantial flowery borders to your left and right, while in the distance, just visible over the top of and through a gap in a line of dark yew, stands a posh double avenue of lollipop-clipped hornbeams flanked by neat copper beech hedges. Elsewhere, the lofty tips of numerous slim ‘Skyrocket’ junipers reach heavenwards, while a huge, hollow, pot-bellied oak, believed to be 800 years…

CAMPANULA ‘PRICHARD’S VARIETY’ At Miserden this tall perennial is supported by shrubs. DIASCIA ‘RUBY FIELDS’ In midsummer, sprays of pink flowers float over the foliage of this 20cm tall perennial. SPIRAEA JAPONICA ‘CANDLELIGHT’ Yellow-tinged leaves contrast with magenta flowerheads on this pretty shrub. ACHILLEA ‘WESERSANDSTEIN’ Soft pink flower clusters on this achillea, which is suited to poor Cotswold brash soil. STACHYS MACRANTHA ‘SUPERBA’ This good do-er forms a mat of foliage before flowering. ASTRANTIA ‘ROMA’ This long-flowering, vigorous cultivar was introduced by Piet Oudolf. It has large pink flowers, good in sun or shade.…

• To maintain the laburnum tunnel, every year after the trees lose their leaves, we select some of the year’s strong new shoots to tie into the existing structure. There are no supports; it’s just a network of branches. We prune the rest of the year’s growth back to two buds, which will form the flowers next year. • The holly hedges of the maze are pruned at the end of summer. We don’t feed them, but we leave the clippings on the ground to break down and feed the soil. • We have started to trial no-dig gardening, as advocated by Charles Dowding. The advantages are less weeding, less watering and healthier soil. • We don’t take any special measures to protect plants such as the hostas in the…

• Mulch beds in spring with organic fertiliser. Rather than buying it in bulk, we find it much easier to buy it in bags. You can move them easily around the garden, open them up and tip them out – it’s much more labour-saving than lugging it around in a wheelbarrow. • We have discovered that by underplanting roses with nigella and calendula, a lush carpet forms that also suppresses weeds. The flowers self-seed and come up again the following year. • When gardening, I use the phrase ‘chunking it’. Rather than taking a butterfly approach to the garden, complete one area before moving on to the next. • When using supports in your garden ensure they are in place well before the plants actually need them – this prevents…

When Lionel de Rothschild described himself as a ‘banker by hobby – a gardener by profession’, he wasn’t entirely joking. From 1919 until his death in 1942, the MP, philanthropist and member of the banking dynasty transformed 200 acres of woodland at Exbury in the New Forest into an enchanting landscape of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and rare trees. He also bred 1,210 new rhododendron hybrids. Now in its centenary year, Exbury Gardens is internationally famed for its spectacular spring colour. But while it has one eye on the past, another is firmly on the future. For Lionel’s great grand-daughter, Marie-Louise Agius, the gardens were a childhood playground – “I was like a kid in a sweet shop,” she recalls as we explore the twisting paths and duck beneath clusters of…

Whatever its age, size or pedigree, a greenhouse is unquestionably a gardener’s most valuable aid in keeping tender and unusual plants, and achieving a head start on the growing year. Where better, then, to look for inspiration and examples of best practice than in some of the most distinguished glasshouses in the country. Here, head gardeners describe their charges, from restored Georgian pinery-vinery, to a brand-new bespoke design. FULHAM PALACE On the curve Unusual fruits, pelargoniums and an indispensable propagation room feature in this historic greenhouse The greenhouse at Fulham Palace, London, was built in the 1830s as a pinery-vinery. It is unusual – and something of an engineering feat – because its 30m length is positioned on the curve of the Walled Garden. Completely rebuilt during 2010 and 2011,…

One of my early gardening memories is of coming back from a party in Oxford in a white dress with bare shoulders – it must have been May – and realising there was going to be a late frost. I went back out into the garden in the small hours (still in the white frock), and covered the strawberry flowers with fleece. I was hooked. Later, when I was writing my thesis, I found strawberry leaves on the bindings and bookplates of the ducal library where I was studying. The family who owned the library had three book collectors in their history – an earl, a marquess and a duke – and one way of establishing who had bought what was through the number of strawberry leaves on the coronets…

• Spread mulch over bare soil after watering to conserve moisture wherever possible. • Continue to mow your lawn regularly: do it once or twice a week, depending on the weather. • Plant out vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and runner beans, once they’ve been hardened off. Water regularly. • Sow winter-flowering pansies and polyanthus now to enjoy colour in the colder months. • Sow fast-growing, hardy annuals such as clarkia, calendula and candytuft in time for late-summer-flowering. • Keep an eye on the water level of ponds and water features. Top them up if they need it. • Protect brassicas against birds by using a bird scarer or keeping them under netting.…

• Wormsley has to look immaculate in early summer. If you’re opening your garden to visitors but don’t have a lot of time to do a complete tidy up there are some tricks. When I’m weeding flower beds, I make sure the edges are always done but can sometimes leave the middle for another day. Similarly, always trim grass edges to make the garden look tidier than it might be. • We deadhead our roses sooner than we would in a domestic garden because they have to look perfect all the time. If you’re hosting a party, be quite ruthless about what you remove. • Plant plenty of annuals to fill beds. We use lots of Ammi majus and Cosmos ‘Purity’ especially. • Always try to have a few smart…

PHACELIA TANACETIFOLIA Flowers of palest lavender-blue on this easy-as-cake annual that’s a huge hit with bees, and superb for cutting too. SALVIA ‘CERRO POTOSI’ This is among the hardiest of the shrubby perennial salvias, bearing magenta flowers over a long period. NEPETA ‘SUMMER MAGIC’ A choice catmint cultivar with a continuous succession of soft lavender flowers on robust, aromatic plants. PHUOPSIS STYLOSA A mat-forming perennial with aromatic leaves, producing pompons of starry pale pink flowers with wispy styles. GERANIUM ‘NIMBUS’ This hardy geranium produces a mound of lacy leaves, topped with a never-ending supply of pretty mauve blooms. ROSA ‘MARY ROSE’ An English rose from David Austin, with loose-petalled flowers in perfect rose-pink that have beautiful fragrance. ECHINOPS RITRO From bristly, thistle-like…

• Keep on top of deadheading at this time of year to ensure repeat flowering. • Make sure you have successional planting for interest through the seasons. Here we start with the early aquilegias, followed by irises (both sibirica and bearded), and keep those colours going. • Tall perennials such as campanula and delphiniums can be planted through shrubs so that they don’t need staking. • Keep clean gravel and straight edges. That’s an important tip I learned as a novice gardener. • We never dig – that has been the ruination of many gardens because digging ruins soil structure. Leave the worms to do it. • An annual mulch of well-rotted horse manure ensures good results in the herbaceous borders. • Give sedums the Chelsea crop in late May…

BUYING A FIRST HOME AND TAKING ON A blank-canvas garden, filled with ideas and dreams for its development, is possibly the most exciting thing that can happen to a gardener. Imagine, then, how exponentially that excitement and delicious anticipation would increase if the plants you chose for it were highly covetable novelties, freshly collected from the farthest reaches of the globe. It’s a wonder Frederick Stern didn’t burst with the thrill of it all. He was just 25 when he moved into Highdown Towers near Worthing, West Sussex in 1909, having inherited a fortune on his father’s death – although he actually only leased it at first, finally buying it when the opportunity arose in 1928. Perched on the edge of the chalky South Downs, it marks the start of…

When is a folly not a folly? This is neither a joke nor a trick question, for this mysterious landscape feature, popular particularly in England down the centuries, defies easy definition. Usually follies serve no practical purpose, yet they tend to have a multiplicity of roles, often subtle and psychological – “an ornament for a gentleman’s grounds and a mirror for his mind,” wrote Barbara Jones in her landmark book Follies and Grottoes (1953). Small wonder their sense of mystery and popularity has endured, and they continue to be built today. Indeed, you might even have considered commissioning one. The name itself is ambiguous. The French word folie we know to mean ‘madness’, but it also translates as ‘delight’. More confusingly, follies are called fabriques in France. Perhaps the clue…

The fields of irises at Howard Nurseries near Diss in Norfolk are probably the closest thing we have to the vast and vivid bulb fields of Holland. The colours are more subtle though, for while iris flower colours can be strong, they are never bright, and one colour tends to fade into the next. Some colours are quite unusual: rich browns, ochres, ethereal blues, not-quite-whites, and black – yes, black, for among all the very dark flowers, ‘Black Tie Affair’ is probably as black as you can get. Howard Nurseries is Britain’s leading wholesale supplier of traditionally grown perennials. Their clients include landscape architects, garden designers and local authorities, as well as retail nurseries and garden centres. Most of what they produce is what is known in the trade as…

It was the rose that kickstarted my obsession with home-grown blooms. I was blown away by the beauty of Rosa ‘Yves Piaget’, a vivid pink rose with a knockout scent that I saw in a top florist’s shop in Paris. After a while spent online playing detective, by winter I was planting three bare-root bushes that formed the beginnings of my first cutting patch in my tiny London garden. Garden roses have a more relaxed and graceful growth and are less stiff than the upright, modern, imported ones. Many roses for the cut flower industry have had their scent bred out of them so that they can be transported from Kenya, Ecuador and Colombia, where they are grown on an industrial scale. Things are getting better with more and more…

• Sow seed in trays and prick out once the first proper leaves appear.• Most edible flowers need full sun and fertile soil for optimum flowering. Some, however, such as nasturtiums, need poorer soil to encourage flowering over leaf production.• Deadhead regularly to prevent flowers setting seed. Once a plant has set seed it will cease to flower.• Keep plants moist, watering in the early morning and avoiding the heat of midday when water evaporates quickly.• Do not spray plants if they are to be eaten.…

COSMOS ‘PIED PIPER RED’ The fluted petals of this cosmos are a stunning feature in the Walled Garden borders. It is started off in the greenhouse for a head start on summer. TOMATO ‘INDIGO ROSE’ Lucy is growing this variety for the first time this year. Its pink centre is a fetching contrast to near-black skin. CUCAMELON These climbers yield small, decorative melon fruits that taste like a lime-flavoured cucumuber. Lush foliage casts welcome shade in sunny spots.…

Hosepipe bans notwithstanding, watering is inevitable at this time of year. But it’s a garden task that brings with it a number of benefits. It offers a chance to mull over planting plans, inspect plants for slugs and snails, carry out a spot of deadheading and, if done barefoot, splash your feet at the end of a hot day. Of course all this is easier with a good hose, and if yours has seen better days then this is the time to upgrade. The best way to improve the watering experience is to buy as long a hosepipe as possible: it’s incredibly dispiriting to tug on a hose to reach a distant planter, only to find there is no more hose left to pull. Consider the type you would like;…

Emperors, Admirals & Chimney Sweepers by Peter Marren Little Toller, £30 Of all the insects, butterflies and their cousins, moths, must be among the best-loved. The joy of witnessing a butterfly alighting on a sunny garden patch, or even on your finger, is second to none, yet we tend to give little thought as to what they might be named or, in fact, how those names were bestowed upon them. Naturalist Peter Marren explores the place of butterflies and moths in European society over the centuries in this publication from independent Dorset publisher Little Toller. The result is a wonderful, meticulously researched survey of names that is packed to the gunnels with cultural and historical references gleaned from the likes of The Linnean Society of London, the Natural History Museum…