A week or two ago we did the big cut back of the perennial garden at Stonehill (above, in its late summer glory). I’ve now ditched all niceties and horticultural finesse with this process, and manage nearly all of it with a pole hedge trimmer. I love the slow, quiet processes of horticulture, but getting some stuff done fast and efficiently gives you more time for the stuff you really love or find nurturing.
Ash and I decided we take the opportunity to shoot a video, and talk through the roughly four different types of cutback presented by the range of plants in a garden like that. Take a look at the video here. We’d love your feedback about alternative ways of managing perennials. Just comment on the YouTube clip.
If you haven’t seen what this garden looks like in autumn, when it’s much more bulky, check out this video we shot back in 2020 here (back when the now-silver beard actually matched the hair colour – what the?!).
Many of you will have seen the quick clip Ash put together of highlights of our NZ South Island tour which we sent out on the weekend. If you missed that – it only goes for one minute! – check it out here. What an amazing itinerary that was! But this year we’re heading north, and there’s a few spots left on the tour (well, there was on Friday, when I last looked). Click here for more details.
And finally, given the great enthusiasm for our ‘Hosting Nature’ symposium in April, I thought you may be interested in a couple of related events in the next few weeks. The amazing doco about Knepp Castle, ‘Wilding’, released in mainstream cinemas in the UK a few months back but not yet seen in Australia, is being shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Tickets are selling fast – I missed the session I wanted to go to – but there’s some showing for Friday 23rd August. Check those out here.
And then there’s the Global Garden of Peace event this coming Thursday night, the 15th, which we’ve told you about before. I can’t wait for this one. Check out details here.
Have a great week!
Michael