The right garden tools and products make gardening so much easier and more comfortable. We’ve suffered from gloves that don’t fit, garden forks that bend under the slightest pressure, secateurs that chew prunings and a too-small wheelbarrow. So we never buy anything unless we’ve researched it carefully first. By ‘we’,…
Making your own garden compost is really easy. And it’s fabulously good for your garden plants. Professional gardeners call it ‘garden gold.’ Plus it will save you taking garden clippings to the recycling centre. Finally, it’s very good for the environment as you are recycling material without incurring petrol costs.…
Is it too late to prune roses or apple trees? Trim lavender? Or plant spring bulbs? What about mowing the lawn? Is there a time when you should definitely put the mower away? I had a gardening ‘to-do’ list for this week. Then it snowed. So most of the list…
Do you have a forgotten garden corner? Does your eye glide over it, because you’ve been meaning to sort it out for months? Or even years? Maybe it’s turned into a dumping ground? Or just one or two large gloomy shrubs just sit there, adding nothing to the garden’s joy?…
If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’ However, the dictionary clearly wasn’t written by gardeners. Garden ruins and follies have several practical uses in your garden. They create a romantic or historic…
You can make these two Christmas table decorations from foraged seed heads and garden greenery. They’re quick – each takes less than ten minutes to create. They’re thrifty, because you can find most ingredients in your own garden or on walks. And they’re sustainable. When the festive season is over,…
Did you know that planting winter pots is a little different from planting summer pots? And that’s not just because the plants need to be winter-hardy. So I went to our local garden centre, Maytree, with garden designer and Great British Bake Off finalist Jane Beedle to find out more…
The value of shrubs in a garden has somewhat been forgotten over the last few years. The focus has been on perennials, annuals, bulbs and grasses. But shrubs are so easy care. They add height, interest and permanent structure in the garden. They can be used as a screen, to…
There are only a few good alternatives to box (English boxwood or Buxus sempervirens) for topiary. And I have just visited a delightful private garden in Kent which shows off both box and the best box substitutes absolutely beautifully. Box has two problems. One is box blight and the other…
You can make a container pond out of anything that will hold water. But some materials are better than others. That includes stone, metal, some ceramics and fibreglass. Many people also make container ponds out of plastic bowls or buckets. However, plastic gets brittle over time when it’s outside, so…
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