Monty Don's articles are so well founded, his enthusiasm is contagious and his advice is invaluable. There is a a real sense of the garden coming magnificently into being but still rich with the promise of more to come. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Then, as autumn begins to bite, the Jewel Garden is cut back, tender plants lifted and it hibernates until quite late in Spring to resume its season of blazing glory. In winter the structure is marked out by box hedging and 8 large Irish Yews – that all fitted in the boot of car when we first planted them in 1994!

This year has given us the enforced opportunity to learn more about the fascinating natural world around us. We do so as much as cooks and lovers of good food as gardeners, always striving for good taste and health over appearance or size. Invites us into the garden at Longmeadow to introduce us to the garden from the earliest snowdrops of January through the first splashes of colour in the Spring Garden, the electric summer displays of the Jewel Garden, the autumn harvest in the orchard, and on to a Christmas feast sourced from the vegetable gardens. Longmeadow is a gardeners’ garden, but this will be a book for gardening enthusiasts of all skill levels who have been inspired by what they’ve seen, and who would like to achieve something similar for themselves.this is when the falling light levels coupled with heat make the rich colours like plum, caramel, purple and ruby red glow richly. Great review, I so enjoyed the opportunity of watching Gardener’s World last Friday although I was actually rather disapointed at the content, seems that they were short of things to say – strange in spring.

My soil has more rocks than Saudi Arabia has sand so I cannot just dig a simple hole and plant a bulb.A simple pavilion is at the far end that is shaded from the sun but looks out over the whole garden and down through the Orchard beds. I have grown vegetables since I was a small child and growing our own vegetables, herbs and fruit has always been an essential ingredient in the lives of Sarah and I.