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I have been very badly behaved and bought myself a present three days before Christmas. In my defence, I was shopping for family presents and saw this plant, buried and neglected in a corner. It is Cycas revoluta, a baby compared to the huge ones we saw near Cairns, but
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The official midwinter point was at 22 minutes past midnight last night. I have no doubt that this winter has yet to deliver its worst in terms of low temperatures, but the shortest day marks a pivotal moment in the gardener's annual cycle. Christopher Lloyd was the subject
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I've seen the first forecast for Christmas Day. Foggy, max 0C, min -1C. Not pleasant. Staying in with hubby and daughters in front of a roaring fire seems like a great plan. In the 10 mins of half-hearted daylight that broke through the murk today I took
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Heavy rain has given way to freezing fog. I've finally managed to get some gardening done, but the light is hopeless for photography so there are no new pictures. I've given next door's wisteria its winter prune and spent a few hours digging thick
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We've had another 8mm of rain today, delivered in a depressing, all day drizzle, bringing December's total to date (the 15th) to 70mm. That's already over 50% more than for the whole of December 2005. And this November we had almost three times the
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It's mid-December and there's no real sign of winter. The papers are putting it down to global warming, which makes a better headline than 'A series of deep lows in the Atlantic'. Well, I'm not getting into that debate here. What
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For the past two weeks it seems that every time I was ready to get outside it started pouring. The rain hasn't been continuous, more a series of sharp, cold showers every day - enough to make serious gardening impractical. But the sun smiles on the good, I'
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Yes, to those of you who've been asking by email, I am a finalist in the 2006 BBC Gardener of the Year competition. No I can't discuss the result. In the December BBC GW mag, I'm the one in the shocking-pink T-shirt,
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Since it's too dark to be outside, I took a look back at the blog for November 2005 to see what I was doing this time last year. I was planting bulbs, sowing seeds, digging out for the prairie garden and enthusiastically planning ahead for 2006. It was
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There's not much to photograph in the garden - the last two weeks have been wet, windy and gloomy. But as it happens our college session this week was spent peering through the microscopes at plant stems, leaves and roots. On a hunch, I got my camera out and
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On a cold, wet day in November it's hard to remember quite why I want an outdoor life. But wrapped up properly and encased in waterproofs even a squally day has its moments. I was at Dunham Massey today, gathering leaves in the now quiet garden, closed to
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Some trees have a fleeting week of glory, only to fade into anonymity for the rest of the year. The rowans deliver all year round for me, starting with tresses of white flowers in April/May. Delicate, shapely leaf cover takes over until August when the berries start to colour