Winter flowering bulbs If you have been given winter flowering bulbs for Christmas or are growing your own to cheer up a dull January, here are a few tips to keep them tip-top. Compost dries out quickly in centrally heated rooms so check twice a week. Water from the bottom by standing the pot in a tray of water for an hour...
Winter is a time to think about any changes you may want to make to your garden layout for next summer and there are some key practical questions to be answered before you get onto the creative, artistic part of the project. I always advise people to look at gardens, large and small, for inspiration to discover a style that they...
There is good news for gardeners who miss their gardening fix when the winter weather prevents outside work. Indoor gardening with houseplants is back in fashion and some of the stalwart plants of our childhood homes are now right on trend instead of being “so last century”. You should be seeing an increase in the number and range of houseplants on offer...
I am often asked what pruning should be done in autumn and the answer is “very little”. The main aim of autumn pruning is to prevent damage to tall shrubs during winter storms and wind rock. This falls into the category of Housekeeping pruning. It applies to late flowering shrubs that have produced tall, whippy stems such as Buddleja, Hydrangeas...
Providing shelter for overwintering wildlife: You will know that I am keen on encouraging wildlife in the garden and there is good news for anyone struggling to find time for all that autumn cutting and tidying. Leaving herbaceous perennials and grasses standing through the winter instead of cutting everything down to ground level provides great shelter for insects and amphibians. They...
By October it really is time to pack away your summer bedding and prepare a couple of pots of winter colour to sit beside your front door. But whereas summer planting schemes were once exclusively made up from half hardy annual plants that were simply composted in autumn, I have noticed in recent years a move to mixed planting even...
Pastel or hot colours? Try out colour schemes before committing to permanent planting. Many gardening columns will be talking about summer bedding plants as we reach the start of May and are able to plant out half hardies with confidence. I have written on this topic before and this time I am encouraging you to expand your view of what summer...
The first of my Camellias has just burst into flower and it looks like being a good year with all the Camellias that I have seen having plenty of fat flower buds. Plants such as Camellia, Rhododendron, Azalea and Acers are ‘ericaceous’ and are often described as acid-loving plants. But I garden on a neutral clay soil so why...
There are plenty of green buzzwords around in gardening at the moment such as eco, sustainable and even ‘green’ itself, although how you can have non green gardening is a bit of a mystery! I am sure that all of us would like to live our lives in a way that protects our planet but does not require sitting in...
We are usually still enjoying summer at least at the start of September but soon gardeners’ thoughts will turn to the autumn planting season. Once air temperatures drop and we have some steady rain (theoretically after a warm, dry summer!) there are a few weeks when conditions are ideal for splitting, moving and planting new perennials and shrubs. The soil...
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