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Northumberland Diary

Read the latest updates from our Northumberland diarist's garden and travels.

Diary entries

27 September 2021 – 10 Plants to grow for colour in September

11 August 2021 – Growing alpine plants in the age of climate change

26 May 2020 – Mossy Saxifrages

20 Apr 2020 – A Close Look at Primula

20 Mar 2020 – Garden Colour in March

14 Feb 2020 – Early flowering plants

11 Dec 2019 – The genus Aciphylla

25 Nov 2019 – In the deep November

11 Oct 2019 – Galloway gardens

10 Sep 2019 – Autumn draws on

10 Aug 2019 – Didn’t it rain!

22 Jun 2019 – Midsummer

18 May 2019 – Meconopsis & others

26 Apr 2019 – April update

01 Apr 2019 – Ten Days in the Argolid

08 Mar 2019 – March update

13 Feb 2019 – February Flowers

15 Jan 2019 – Saxy Silvers

20 Dec 2018 – In the deep mid-winter

27 Nov 2018 – It’s a cover up

12 Nov 2018 – Back to Mallorca

09 Oct 2018 – Autumn fires

27 Sep 2018 – A visit to the Czech Republic

17 Sep 2018 – Sharing them out

03 Sep 2018 – Fir-less

 

Read older entries in our diary archive.

The garden

About the author

John Richards

John Richards has lived in south Northumberland for 50 years and has been a keen grower of alpines, and visitor to the mountains, throughout the half-century. He and his wife Sheila have been in their present garden 30 years and John has been writing this diary about the garden since 2006.

John is Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of Newcastle, where his research interests centre on the evolution and genetics of plant breeding systems. He is an authority on the genera Primula and Taraxacum (dandelions!). John is an AGS judge, exhibitor and Vice-President and previous President (2003-6).