April marks a month of change in the garden. Longer days, rising temperatures and clear signs of vigorous growth coincide with the four day Easter weekend for many and draw even the barely-gardeners outside to exercise their green fingers. For keen growers, especially of vegetables, April brings a sigh of relief as they start to free greenhouse and windowsills of...
November is rarely the most encouraging time for gardening for the obvious reasons of shorter, colder, wetter days. Nonetheless it is important not to lose touch completely with the green elements of our lives. I would still encourage people to try and get some daylight every day, if possible in a green and pleasant space. It is the very fact...
It is always nice to be asked and the lovely, gardeny folk at Vinca Garden Supplies asked if they could write a piece for their blog about my path from working in IT to therapeutic horticulture. So of course I said "Yes" particularly as I am always on the look out to introduce the wellbeing benefits of...
Holidays, summer events and children to entertain may mean people do less gardening, in August and I would like to encourage you to continue this into the autumn and beyond. Now that is not as surprising as it might sound from someone who spends their time encouraging people to get gardening. Firstly I should say this is not a call...
In May, I wrote about the start of the Flower Show season and what we can all learn from looking at those fabulous show gardens, whether in person or on television. By the time you read this at the beginning of June, of course, the biggest of them all, the Chelsea Flower Show, will have finished. But as always, I'm...
Houseplants make great presents but to ensure that a plant, like a puppy, is not just for Christmas here are a few key tips on buying and looking after plants for yourself or as gifts. The first question is on what and where to buy. Like buying any plant at any time of year, you want a healthy plant with a...
It is slightly unusual for me to devote an article to a garden that I have visited but there are two reasons for writing about the Walled Garden at the Luton Hoo Estate. In the interests of transparency I should say that I attended a free Press Day for garden writers that involved lunch and chocolate cake...
As Spring gets into gear (at last), we may be glad to see the back of winter colds and bugs but there is one ‘bug’ that will benefit your children, grandchildren or school pupils for their whole lives – and that is the gardening bug. There is a raft of evidence that green spaces and gardening can have huge benefits to...
Open most magazines in January and various articles will be titled “New Year, New You, House, Wardrobe, Job etc.” and I mulled this over for my January gardening column. But the reality of gardening is that January is not really the start of a new year; autumn and spring probably have more of a claim to that. And I feel...
Two decades into the 21st century I reckon that it is time to stop separating the plants in our gardens from the wildlife. A fabulous garden should not ignore the potential to benefit biodiversity as well as the human residents. We have all read about insect pollinators being required for a good crop of fruit and vegetables and few people...
