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Strawberry mountain

I loved Chelsea Flower Show last year so was keen to go along when the Bermuda Department of Tourism invited me. Last year, most of my favourite gardens were big show gardens outdoors, but this year I made more time for the exhibitors inside the floral marquee, and found lots of interesting smaller gardens. Here’s the 10 I liked best overall this year (in no particular order):

1. The tunnel of clematis of all different shades of purple and… Continue reading

My feature on greentraveller.co.uk, highlighting holidays on which you can spot bluebells, daffodils and more in bloom, is now live… Continue reading | 1 Comment

I was interested in the story from Conservation International on scientists in Borneo discovering a teeny tiny new species of frog – the Microhyla nepenthicola is about the size of a pea and lives in pitcher plants which hold pools of water.

When I saw the photo, I thought surely this must be the smallest frog in the world?

Au contraire – it’s only the smallest species discovered in the OLD world .

They’ve found even… Continue reading

I was pleased to hear that Cancun has devised an underwater museum as a new tourist attraction. Not because I thought the world necessarily needed an underwater museum (more on that later) but because this is good news for the threatened coral reefs in the Cancun area.

The massive expansion of tourism over the last 40 years has led to the rapid decline in the quality of the… Continue reading

I’ve been at a wedding in the countryside this weekend, at Springhead Sustainable Living Centre in Dorset. It’s a ‘rural centre for creative and sustainable living’ and its gardens are in the list of 1001 gardens you must see before you die, no less.

I’m not usually that into gardens (see other blog posts for attempts to cultivate a herb garden on my balcony) but this one was lovely. I surprised myself with how many plants and flowers I could name – I’ve… Continue reading

So, day one of the New Greener Me has involved a trip to Harringey Homebase to buy some herbs to grow on the balcony.

At about two metres square, it’s unlikely I’ll ever grow enough out there to become self-sufficient, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

I had intended to fully research balcony gardening before I went, to find out who likes sharing a pot with who, which