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Nic Wilson

Life, Nature and the Garden

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  • About
  • Writing
  • Country Diary
    • Heron Has Come A-Hunting
    • My dad and I, watching a hoopoe, finally
    • An Exhalation in the Alder Carr
  • Peat Free Nurseries List
    • Updated Peat-Free Nurseries List
  • Environment
    • Nature Writing
      • Sussex Wildlife Trust: Nature Writing Workshop
      • Motherlode
      • Snickets
      • Why Nature Matters: In Our Gardens and Our Countryside
      • Of Swings And Daisies
      • Still Life
      • How Our Love Of Gardening Began – With Thanks
      • How Did Your Love Of Gardening Begin?
      • Nettles revisited: how time removes the sting
    • Wildlife
      • Why Nature Matters: In Our Gardens and Our Countryside
      • Winter Treats: Redwing and Fieldfare
      • What Nestbox Where?
      • The Bee’s Knees
    • Peat
      • Peat Bog Restoration: Protecting Ecosystems and Limiting Climate Change
      • Updated Peat-Free Nurseries List
      • Save Our Rainforests: The Peat-Free Nurseries List
    • Water
      • Holding Back The Flood and The Urban Rain Garden
      • Gardeners’ World Live: Water, Water, Everywhere…
    • Sustainable Design
      • Pesticide-Free Plants with the Saving Pollinators Assurance Scheme
      • Gardening For A Sustainable Future
      • Year of Green Action Garden at RHS Hampton Court
      • 5 Environmentally-Friendly Ideas to Take Home from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
      • Plastic Pollution in the Pearlfisher Garden
      • Health, Wellbeing and Sustainability at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
      • Show The Love With A Green Heart
      • 10 Ethical Gardening Gifts For A Green Christmas
  • Gardens
    • Design
      • BBC Gardeners World Live – All About Inspiration
      • In Praise of the Humble Pea: The Seedlip Garden
      • RHS Chelsea Flower Show Highlights
      • Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe – the landscape, arts and the mind
      • Humphry Repton: Art and Nature for the Duke of Bedford
      • Creating A Winter Garden (Part 1)
      • Creating A Winter Garden (Part 2)
      • Creating A Winter Garden (Part 3)
      • How Did Your Love Of Gardening Begin?
      • How Our Love Of Gardening Began – With Thanks
      • Luton Hoo Walled Garden
      • Chelsea Journeys
      • Planting Palettes: Reflections on RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016
      • Around the World in 6 Garden Cities
      • Dogwood Days and Cornus Concerns
    • Cutting Patch
      • Cutting Patch: Into The Limelight
      • Planning a Cutting Patch: Annual Choices
      • Planning a Cutting Patch: Bulb Time
      • Grow your way to happiness…
    • Gardening with kids
      • Garden Schooling: Ladybird Maths
      • Garden Schooling: Nature Spells
      • Garden Schooling: From Small Seeds…
      • Sowing the Seeds of Tomorrow
      • Family Fun: The Great British Wildflower Hunt
      • Woburn Abbey Garden Show: A Family Affair
      • Seedy Saturday: Rainbows, Crocodiles and Pearls
      • How to Engage Kids in a Small Family Garden Part 1: Building a Willow Den
      • How to Engage Kids in a Small Family Garden Part 2: Wildlife Wows
      • We can sow a rainbow…
    • Flowers
      • Tulip Time…
      • 7 Best Alliums To Plant This Week
      • 3 Floral Favourites at RHS Tatton Park
      • Bulbs To Light Up Spring
      • Banish the September blues with my top 10 tulips
      • Clematis ‘Belle of Woking’: An Unusual History
  • GYO
    • Vegetables
      • 25 Colourful Crops for a Vibrant Vegetable Garden
      • Planting Garlic in Containers and Oyster Mushroom Update
      • 8 Delicious Recipes for Surviving a Rhubarb Glut…
      • In Praise of the Humble Pea: The Seedlip Garden
    • Fruit
      • Fruity New Ideas in the Edible Eden Garden at RHS Hampton Court
      • Chilli Harvest 2016
      • Old chillies v new chillies: how do you grow yours?
      • Oh Happy Day! New Tomatoes, Pepper and Watermelon Launched at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
      • 3 Top Tasting Tomatoes…
      • Seedy Saturday: Rainbows, Crocodiles and Pearls
    • Herbs
      • Hey Presto – Pesto!
    • Unusual Crops
      • Do My Cucamelons Look Big In This?
      • Confessions of an Ocaholic
      • Exploring wild flowers: 5 coastal plants with interesting edible histories
      • Oyster Mushroom Advent Calendar: A Christmas Harvest
      • Oyster Mushroom Advent Calendar: Part One
      • Prince and Pedlar: Forgotten Fruit
    • Plot to plate
      • Plot to Plate: Stuffed Summer Squash
      • Plot to Plate: Apple and Cinnamon Butter
      • Scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream – perfect for a summer afternoon tea
      • Allotment Soup Challenge: Celeriac and Blue Cheese
      • Allotment Soup Challenge: Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke and Sweet Chestnut
      • Plot To Plate: Tomatillo Salsa
      • Plot to Plate: Cinnamon Poached Quinces
      • Plot to Plate: Chilean Guava Cupcakes
      • Plot to Plate: Courgette Tea Bread
      • Plot to Plate: Courgette and Chilli Cornbread
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
      • Book Review: The Secrets of Great Botanists
      • Book Review: Dahlias by Naomi Slade and Georgianna Lane
      • Book Review: James Wong’s ‘How To Eat Better’
      • Book Review: RHS Plants From Pips and The Little Book of Hygge
    • What’s in a name?
      • What’s In A Name? Capsicum Annuum
      • What’s In A Name? Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’
      • What’s In A Name? Centaurea montana ‘Amethyst In Snow’
      • What’s In A Name? Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’

Tag: Dahlia

Wordless Wednesday

September 21, 20164 Comments
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Male bush cricket on my Dahlia ‘Firepot’

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Wordless Wednesday

August 24, 201612 Comments

Dahlia heaven in Ickworth Walled Garden…

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Happiness on a stalk 😁

 

Wordless Wednesday

August 3, 2016August 3, 20164 Comments
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Dahlia ‘Happy Single Date’

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Dahlia ‘Happy Single Date’ is single no more… 😁

What a difference a day can make in the coloration!!

Twitter

My Tweets

Instagram

Followed a 111-year-old map this afternoon to hunt down an ancient swallow-hole. Expected it to be long gone, but here it is, reflecting the sky the way it has, no doubt, for millennia. Gentle brook-trickle, modest pool, exhilarating find! Plus lapwings, hares & grey partridge.
Looking forward to a quiet evening reading while everyone else is out...
Volunteer session chopping scrub & hedgelaying. Blue sky was deceptive - as soon as the Kelly kettle came out, the heavens opened & we sloshed through the rest of the session. 💦
First trip for weeks that wasn't to hospital or doctors. Slow mooch across the reedbeds; stopped by an old oaky pal in the wet meadow. Smell of fox, mud, decaying vegetation, fetid pools made me feel real again. #mypatch
Heron comes a-hunting in my @guardian Country Diary today. Lovely to celebrate our rooftop visitor and the pleasure its visits bring us. Link in bio...
Henry VIII falls face-first in the fen and a lone heron stalks the rooftops in my Guardian Country Diary this morning... (link in bio)
If you're joining me from over on Twitter, hello! Thanks for looking me up 👋
It was my childhood dream to see a hoopoe & today I got to write about it in my Guardian Country Diary. This one’s for you, Dad xx

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Guardian Country Diary
  • Country diary: A heron has come a-hunting
    November 23, 2022 by Nic Wilson
    Hitchin, Hertfordshire: Once abundant here, grey herons are now outnumbered by their egret cousins. This one has come to usHenry […]
  • Country diary: My dad and I, watching a hoopoe, finally
    July 11, 2022 by Nic Wilson
    Hinxworth, Hertfordshire: It’s incredible that one has pitched up just a few miles from my home, but we’ve been awaiting […]
  • Country diary: The sheer joy of watching sparrows move in with us
    May 6, 2022 by Nic Wilson
    Hitchin, Hertfordshire: We built these terraces years ago, and finally our garden is alive with gathering, squabbling spuggiesOur scruffy lawn […]

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Top Posts & Pages

Updated Peat-Free Nurseries List
Planting Palettes: Reflections on RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016
How to Engage Kids in a Small Family Garden Part 1: Building a Willow Den
Oyster Mushroom Advent Calendar: A Christmas Harvest
What's In A Name? Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'
Exploring wild flowers: 5 coastal plants with interesting edible histories
3 Top Tasting Tomatoes...
Planting Garlic in Containers and Oyster Mushroom Update
Creating A Winter Garden (Part 2)
Snapdragons of Autumn Twilight

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Disclaimer

Nic Wilson and Dogwooddays do not take any responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. Not everyone reacts positively to all edible plants or other plant uses. Always check before you eat and seek advice from a professional before using a plant medicinally. Always ensure it is legal to forage and where identification is concerned, if in any doubt, don’t pick.

Copyright Notice

© Nic Wilson and Dogwooddays, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nic Wilson and Dogwooddays with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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