"A plant for every day of the year" by Philip Clayton - a book review

 

A filthy, soggy morning and rain has stopped me from getting some gardening done.

Instead, I am holed up in my greenhouse listening to the spitting of rain on the window panes, with my nose in Philip Clayton’s new book “A plant for every day of the year".

I’ve been dipping in and re-reading this book for the last week, and it's so much more than a dry, extended list of 365 plants divided into seasonal sections with the odd photograph thrown in for good measure.

Philip, a writer and former Deputy Editor of The Garden magazine from the RHS has grown and photographed every one of the plants featured in his own 130 x 25 ft garden. He really knows how each performs throughout the year, and advises on how to get the best out of them as well as mentioning their individual foibles and providing a fact file on each of them.

Unlike most books, I didn't start at the very beginning. I went straight into the chapter covering plants right now at their peak in mid Autumn and found a Decaisnea fargesii .Philip says it is perfect for Halloween and describes as having

“bizarre looking fruit which gives the plant its more grisly common name “dead mans fingers”. Each fruit is about the shape, size, and bruised blue colour of a detached human finger. It gets worse: if you touch them, they are cold with a soft flesh-like texture. Best to put such thoughts out of your mind and enjoy them as blue seed pods hanging amid the butter-yellow tints the leaves acquire."

Now, this is the sort of engaging description I like when reading about a plant, and there are plenty of them throughout the book.

On the same page, I'm seduced by a photograph of a beautiful Euonymus Alactus "Compactus" in all its glory, and once again I love the accompanying vivid description.

There's also a ClematisTerniflora" I rather like the look of with frothy white flowers and a sweet almond scent, which I haven't come across before, but apparently, it may need restraint. Don't we all at times?

Mind you, after finding so many specimens in the book which would be wonderful in my garden, I will need restraining too. I “may” be tempted to buy quite a few of them ( and yes, I’m being deliberately vague about the exact number)

The plant selection here covers some more unusual ones which you won't find everywhere and may have to be hunted down. There are also plenty of more well-known ones, that remind you of some you’ve seen on garden visits. There’s no plant snobbery here, just a knowledgable, love of plants which he hopes gardeners of all levels will enjoy.

According to Philip Clayton " Thoughtfully planted, a garden will add new delights every day, regardless of the season." 

With this book, there's an absolute feast of 365 delicious planting possibilities for both all-year-round colour and interest in any garden, whatever its size. I just wish there were a few photographs of Philip’s garden which show how he has curated this collection of plants, and so admire the overall effect

One word of warning about lending this book to friends…. You just might not get it back.

"A plant for every day of the year" by Philip Clayton, is published by DK Books and costs £20.

I was sent a copy to review.

National Apple Day

National Apple Day has been celebrated here in the UK since 1990, and I'm only too happy to join in the celebrations for such a wonderful fruit.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't manage without apples in my diet. They're not only scientifically proven to be good for you (yes there's truth in the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away), but growing them is good for all of us too .

According to Common Ground, the organisation which created this day in our calendar, it's important to recognize the importance of orchards to our landscape in the sheer diversity of our local varieties of apples and in our culture.

 As a child, my mother and father had a mini orchard of apple and pear trees in their suburban garden and I have vivid memories of all the apple puddings we polished off over the years.

These days I have only one apple tree in my garden, which is rather lax about when it is going to fruit. I don't know what variety it is, but it's just sweet enough to pick off the tree and crunch away, but is also delicious when baked in cakes and puddings.

Our village apple tree fruited before mine, so at the beginning of September my two year old  grandaughter and I went to collect our first locally grown apples of the season. 

Apple picking 

For the last month though we've been picking and eating our own apples

I've prepared pounds of apples in the freezer ready for pie, tarts, and crumbles through the winter, but today, on a rainy Apple Day, I've collected the last lot off the tree and some windfalls. They will be needed.

 

Earlier this week,  Angie came around for supper. She's new to the village and is staying with our next-door neighbour until she can go home to Ukraine. We thoroughly enjoyed her company and she absolutely loved the apple crumble I made for pudding. I can't ever remember a time in my life without a crumble, but I suspect she won't forget her first one. One helping was followed by two more and she loved the tartness of the apples combined with the sweetness of the topping. 

 So do we, so I suspect it will be apple crumble ago go for Angie and us from now on, until the apples run out that is.....

Happy Apple Day to you all.