The garden in Richmond at its most full of promise

Bluebells in Richmond are coming back. You’ll see them first in the shadowed corners of gardens, then spreading through the woods like a held breath released. They arrive quietly, stems pale green before the flowers show their colour. This is the moment before the spectacle. The leaves push through last autumn’s leaf litter. The buds […]

Richmond gardens are growing faster than you can keep up right now, every stem reaching, every border thickening overnight. You turn your back for three days and the hedge has put on six inches. The peas climb their canes in a weekend. This is the garden at full tilt. The light stretches past nine o’clock. […]

The garden heavy with the year’s harvest in Richmond shows you what July does best. Courgettes hide under broad leaves. Runner beans climb their frames. Tomatoes hang in tight green clusters, weeks from turning. This is the moment when everything accelerates. You pick lettuce one morning and by evening another row needs cutting. The lavender […]

The frost in Richmond gardens that still catches you out arrives without warning in late spring. You wake to find the courgette leaves blackened, the dahlias slumped. The forecast said five degrees. It lied. This is the work of a radiation frost. Clear skies and still air let the day’s warmth escape straight upward. The […]

Winter birds in Richmond are arriving now, the feeders filling up with regulars and strangers alike. You might spot a redwing in the holly or a fieldfare working through fallen apples. They come from Scandinavia when the cold sets in there, looking for softer ground and easier pickings. The feeders you hung in autumn are […]