the blackberry garden

A blog about my garden, my inspiration to garden and things about gardening that make me happy. UK No: 1 Garden Blog 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 (Vuelio). Garden Media Guild Blog of the Year 2019. Top Ten UK Gardening Blog 2026 (Feedspot)

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Book Review - Shades of Green: My Life as the National Trust's Head of Gardens by John Sales

May 29, 2018

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Alison Levey: I have been writing about my garden on ‘The BlackberryGarden’ blog since 2011. I am an amateur and somewhat obsessed gardener and I am based in Leicester. I write about my own garden and what inspires me to garden: gardens I have visited, plant fairs and garden shows. I also review garden related books and products. The Blackberry Garden is not a ‘how to’ blog, the aim is to talk more about the enjoyment of gardening and it is read by people who garden and people who do not, all readers and followers are very welcome.

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Feedspot Top 100 UK Gardening Blogs

Vuelio 2020

End of Month Review November 2025

and then December started knocking on the door. Winter is coming, it feels like it has already arrived though the weather has oscillated between mild and sunny to cold frosty and rainy. November has been an all weather month. All weather apart from snow so far I suppose. The garden is cold and wet and thinking about Spring. I look at the colours of the emerging cyclamen leaves and love the glitter of their silvery finery. Every year more and more pop up in the garden. From a few pots planted over a few years there are now so so many. It is a joy. I can wait for Spring but seeing these now gives me real hopes for it. A couple of limp, soggy looking snowdrops keep appearing. They don't look hugely happy which is a bit of surprise as snowdrops expect to be cold and a bit soggy. Maybe they are awake just a little too early and not prepared for Winter yet. I am not sure I am prepared for Winter either. The lawns also hav...

Gone over, but not forgotten

There are still buds on some of the roses, I doubt they will come to much, but there they are, clinging on for every moment that they can. Meanwhile in the lounge, the last cut of the roses are looking a little, erm, dry. I keep walking past them and thinking 'I must deal with them'. I keep walking past them and thinking 'for heavens sake chuck them on the compost and clean out the favourite vase ready for next year'. Does this happen? It does not. Instead I start to walk past, pause and step back and look at them and think that in this dried state they have beauty. Of course dried flowers have great beauty, this is not news, but these are accidental dried flowers and are the product of inactivity rather than deliberate choice. Y et now they have become a deliberate choice. Now I look and make sure I notice them and they make me smile. I am not casting them out as I see their new beauty. This is not the beauty of them forming from buds, this is not the beau...

End of Month Review - December 2025

No sooner did the year start and then it seemed to have ended. I know that as you get older years seem to pass by faster, but 2025 disappeared in a blink of an eye. and whilst the year is ending cold and frosty and with snow threatened, the snowdrops are pushing their way up. Some have been flowering for some weeks now, but most are still considering their options and biding their time. The front side lawn has pronounced fox track leading to the gap in the fence where they can get through. The cats also use this path constantly. Of course the cats might have created the path and the foxes also use it. I think the cats would probably claim ownership. There are nigella seedlings starting to push through. There are annual weed seedlings too, but let's focus on the nigella for now. The Daphne Jaqueline Postill in the back garden (one of two) is flowering away and scenting the entrance to the garden. It is a delight. We have had some deep frost...

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