Green shoots of summer
“Slow Gardening is subtle and considerate, gently steering and nurturing the garden rather than bullying it into some kind of chorus-line display”
May. There can be no more jubilant moment in the gardener’s calendar. April has a dancing green light that reveals itself between showers and moments of almost grumpy bad weather, but by the time we reach May there is a rolling, green richness that expands as the month progresses. May arrives like a gift and shakes me to the core, and it sends me spinning into a green space. No other time of year combines such an intensity of colour and freshness of light with the vivacity of daily – almost hourly – growth, and the full voluptuousness of the English garden on a perfect May day.
Of course, no garden can compete with the British countryside in May where the combination of mile after mile of country lane and field hedgerow smothered with cow parsley and hawthorn blossom is, I believe, one of the great wonders of the world. It’s an inspiration for any garden, from inner-city backyard to a country garden like Longmeadow. It is important to take the time to enjoy spring as it unfurls in the garden and world all around us. Time is a much-undervalued aspect of gardening and I am a great fan of Slow Gardening.
Time flies fast enough without
