Since the age of 17, one way or another I’ve always had the luxury of an outdoor space of my own to garden in. Even at times when I’ve lived in a flat my day job has always taken care of my gardening needs. Just now I have the luxury of both which sometimes makes…
Author: Brian Cunningham
Gardener & Consultant
The Gardens of Dumfries & Galloway
That’s us in August now with gardens up and down the country reaching their peak. Veg plots are bursting at the seams, perennials are so full of foliage they flop over paths, then there’s our seasonal tubs and hanging baskets that are so alive with colour you just can’t help wondering how they get…
Alpines and conifers, a gardening match
I chuckle how two of my favourite groups of plants couldn’t more apart at opposite ends of the plants spectrum. Miniature alpines and giant conifers! My fascination of mountain plants probably stemmed from the small rockery my mum had when I was growing up. The mound of soil with a few well placed…
Coping with climate change- trees for shade and rain gardens
The topic of climate change never seems far from the table these days. As gardeners, we need no convincing of what is happening, being outdoors for large spells of our time we can see and feel it for ourselves first hand. The recent heatwaves are a prime example, thankfully not as extreme as down south…
Holiday season garden care
With holiday season now upon us, it also comes the time when us gardeners are faced with our biggest gardening challenge of the year. How can we prevent our gardens going to ruin during the time we are away and also be able to enjoy our well-earned break away at the same time! Being…
Weeds- friends and foes
I’ve always found weeds intriguing. Just what it is about them that turn us mild mannered gardeners into crazed maniacs, using weapons of mass destruction such as weed killers and flame throwers to try and eradicate them from out gardens. Many of the plants we refer to as weeds are actually UK native wildflowers…
Dundee Botanic Garden facing closure
How sad it was to read that the Dundee Botanic Garden is looking at closure and its skilled garden staff amongst 190 others across the whole University of Dundee facing redundancy as part of measures to cut costs. If the proposal was to go ahead, what a loss to the Dundee community and visitor experience…
June update in the veg plot
As much as it’s part of my living to encourage more people to garden, and in particular grow their own veg, I’m fully aware of the commitment it requires. Hence this is first time in a few years I’ve been making the required effort myself. There’s a couple of reasons for this, I find…
Dementia-friendly gardening
When I first started my gardening career all these years ago, pretty much thirty-six years to the day, never in a million could I have imagined just what it would go on to give me, considering at that point I shared the stereotypical attitude of many that gardening was only about grass cutting and weeding….
Evergreen shrub pruning
I’ve spent quite a bit of time this spring focusing on my shrub plants. Lots of these do their thing at the end of the winter and into spring before they drift off to obscurity and to the back of our minds as we instead focus more on the likes of our fruit and vegetables,…
The Seaside Garden
As an island nation with many miles of coast line, some of our fellow gardeners are doing so in some pretty challenging and at times hospitable conditions. I grew up in St Andrews on the east coast of Fife. Although not right down by the beach I still experienced the cold har rolling in from…
Peas and beans in the veg plot
Well, would you believe it. Despite writing in the papers and going on national television via the Beechgrove Garden television programme telling everyone else how important it is to have some horticultural fleece at hand and keep an eye out for damaging frosts on early plantings of veg, I’ve only gone and got caught out…
Brian Cunningham 