The Garden Log

Are the best gardens designed or created? Why are there beetles crawling on my World of Interiors magazine? What cut flowers would go with my collection of pornographic postcards? These and other important questions answered in the guide to effortless good taste.
For more of this sort of thing join me at https://www.thegardencollective.uk/ben-dark/

Two very different 3am trips to the garden this week as heat gives way to rain. Also, using soft cuttings and plastic cups to make plants from plants, some Musa basjoo, some Clerodendrum trichotomum, some Solanum laciniatum and some flower crab spiders, plus of course, aspidistra: ‘They’re a dashed important subject,'
And here's the link to the How to Academy event: https://tickets.howtoacademy.com/the-epic-family-history-of-plants-tickets/worldwide-live-stream/2026-10-27-18-00
Love to all you gardeners and gardening people

How will our gardens look in the future? Ben visits the new garden in Grosvenor Square with its Nigel Dunnett planting to find out.
Also featuring: tragedy at bathtime; some borrowed seedlings; a 4000 year old stumpery and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York Theatre.
And if you enjoyed any of that then of course you must pre order my book
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337

Is Thomas Knight the greatest villain in the history of fruit growing? And how does a Frenchman's marriage influence the rose gardens of England? These and other very important questions answered in an episode of The Garden Log recorded in the bleached white of a Herefordshire summer.
If you enjoyed any of this history, gardening and plants podcast then consider preordering my book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337

We find ourselves at the mercy of forces beyond our control and hide from the wind and sun under a leafy bowers of the Baroque garden at Gammel Holtegård. A gardening podcast.
Here is the mega-discount for Americans
https://www.amazon.com/Green-Kingdom-Family-History-Plants-ebook/dp/B0H5D7H8PZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RP2TBN1HHA7K&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Bo_HP2EzIae79kSPW1fmkfmTi9cnIVFFedPWaFTKxy0IhNjqQnZmyw-9-Z9S3g2jUQyqpYp_2RZl8cdrCj0pn2uM4vQuzbP_WVV8Qfhn4oqoQqDoC8jNUq0lTckYckglCI7jTvkCL2wOhWxoyDf544YrlxKILoJeqIL-hlNBtaY.JA2A3bZ2AXgmhMakyG53ufPM7AVr6d6RpTFwXDD6vsM&dib_tag=se&keywords=green+kingdom+a+family+history+of+plants&qid=1785172825&s=books&sprefix=green+kingdom+a+family+history+of+plan%2Cstripbooks%2C349&sr=1-1
Lots of love