Gardenig in Britain. Tips & Guides

Some people get their kicks from designer labels, others from rummaging through flea shops, or collecting obscure Japanese comics, vintage tractors, handbags, dolls, beer-mats, Star Wars merchandise or whatever else. Me, I get mine from ordering seeds.

The news has been awash with UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson’s issues in relation to the badger cull. There has been fierce opposition to this issue. No one seems certain whether this strategy will help make a positive impact on the reduction of bovine tuberculosis in cattle. With fierce protests and ongoing issues yet to be resolved, it seems this is far from over.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

The Main Avenue of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the heart of the iconic event. An extraordinary opportunity for talented newcomers and experienced designers alike to showcase innovation, creativity and the transformative power of a garden space in the heart of the city and watched by an audience of millions. Tom Massey is back after his 2023 Chelsea Flower Show success, this year partnering with Je Ahn, and familiar faces Ann-Marie Powell, Matthew Childs, Tom Stewart-Smith and Robert Myers are designing show gardens supported by Project Giving Back. 

After several years of sowing at different time, I’ve come to the conclusion that the perfect time for me to sow my Runner and French Bean seeds in the greenhouse is on 1st May. That way they have exactly one month to grow and be the perfect size to be planted outside on 1st June. I live in the South East of the UK so all worries of frost have gone from that area by the beginning of June. If you live further north or south of where I am, then you know your frost dates and can adjust your timings.

It doesn’t happen very often that I have an afternoon free during the week, but today I did. So it was the perfect time to sow all my April seeds, inside and out. After lunch I grabbed a cup of tea and my April box of seeds and off I went to the greenhouses to start.

Being British we love to talk about the weather, it’s just one of those things we do. Many of us are never happy whatever the weather brings. It’s either too cold (but it’s the winter so what do you expect, put a few extra layers on), or too hot (again it’s the summer and that’s what happens, drink something cold and buy a fan). It rains when people don’t want it to (I must admit sometimes when it pours and I’m working I do get cross but I can’t do anything about it), and then sometimes it gets very windy (we live on a small island that is right next to the Atlantic ocean so it’s gonna happen). Stop complaining about the weather all the time and just live your life and enjoy your life. You only get one life so make the most of it and stop moaning about something that really doesn’t effect you that much. Yes you might get wet when it rains or sweaty when it’s hot, but there is always someone worse off that you. Ok so moan over, here’s what I got up to today and how the weather has effected my plants.

Now this hasn’t happened for ages, but nothing was going on this weekend. No cinema, no bell ringing, no seeing family. It was just me in the garden for the entire weekend. Obviously there was the usual shopping and household chores to do, but most of those were done on Saturday morning. It was then just me and my plants….it was beautiful.

For those who don’t live in the UK this weekend was a 4 day Bank Holiday. We don’t usually get these, but we were celebrating our Queen being on the throne for 70 years so they added a couple of extra days holiday in.

With lockdown slowly easing there is a sense of hope in the air. The vaccination program is going really well in the UK and everyone over 50 has been offered their first jab. We’re all under 50 in our household, so our time hasn’t come quite yet, but hopefully will soon.

January is an interesting time to look for birds in the garden, as days are short and the availability of natural food is limited. This brings more birds into gardens, for whom a reliable source of supplementary food can be a lifeline.

I hate camping. I don’t see the point of voluntarily depriving yourself of four walls and a roof, when there are perfectly serviceable buildings nearby. So, when the opportunity arose to take my husband and two small children on our first-ever glamping holiday, I was intrigued to see whether I could be converted. And if anything was going to convince me, a tent with proper beds, a flushing toilet and a kitchen, in the magnificent setting of the Cheddar Gorge, was going to be it.

Last September my husband and I fulfilled a long-held dream of visiting Australia, when we decided to take a road trip from Brisbane to Sydney. When you look at the map, our trip marks only a tiny slice of this massive country, but we knew we wanted to take it slowly and really soak up the countryside and enjoy the places we did have time to see.

From the traditional bunch of classic red roses, to a theatrical spectacle of fern fronds and striking blooms, a bouquet of flowers can be a timeless or show stopping gesture of friendship, celebration, or romance. Yet, not all bouquets are created equal. Sustainability credentials, community impact, artistic craft and founder vision may be paramount considerations when choosing where to source your flowers, but we’ve taken the thorn out of the task by rounding up a list of pioneering florists around the country who are creatively inventive, sustainability-minded and will deliver a bouquet worthy of any special occasion. 

This month, why not use your 2-for-1 Gardens entry card to spot some of the most exciting wildlife the UK has to offer in late winter. Wrap up warm, grab your2-for-1 Gardens card, maybe even some binoculars and head out to one of these gardens for a full day out.

The pear grown in Britain is the European Pear which derives from Pyrus communis, native of the temperate parts of Europe and the western part of southern Asia as far as the Himalayas. In America some varieties are grown which are hybrids between the European Pear (as represented by ‘William’s Bon Chrdtien’, known in America as ‘Bartlett’) and Pyrus serotina, the Japanesesand pear.

Two main groups of cherries are cultivated for the merit of their fruit, the `sweet’, dessert (Prunus avium) and the `sour’, culinary (Prunus cerasus); a third group, the ‘Duke’ cherries, form an intermediate class. The sweets are subdivided into the ‘black’ and ‘white’ varieties. All fruiting cherries are hardy in the British Isles, though the blossom may be damaged by spring frosts.

There are lots of signs that summer has arrived—children get out of school, otherwise normal men get out of regular clothes and into lime green golf pants, and, in many gardens, the weeds get out of hand.

How to Grow and Care for Freesia Flowers Freesia spp.

Anyone in search of planting ideas for their garden in the colder months is spoilt for choice when it comes to sources of inspiration. Up and down Britain there are sterling examples of gardens planted for winter interest: Cambridge University Botanic Garden boasts one of the earliest; Wakehurst Place is home to one of the more recent; then there’s Bodnant, Dunham Massey, the Savill Garden – the list goes on. One thing they have in common though is that they’re all quite large, and gardeners could be forgiven for feeling they need a separate ‘winter area’ or hefty acreage to create anything worthwhile in their own plots. Not so, says David Jordan, senior gardener at Anglesey Abbey, who cares for its well-known Winter Garden and has a host of winter plants to recommend that will easily integrate into your existing garden.

Lipstick plant (Aeschynanthus radicans) is a popular house plant with an almost constant display of bright red, tubular flowers, that resemble lipsticks, against trailing, green foliage. Native to the rainforests of South East Asia, Aeschynanthus is an epiphytic plant, which means it doesn’t grow in the ground but instead is found hanging from tree branches, where it gets its moisture from rain water vapour. As a house plant in the UK, it grows well in a free-draining, peat-free potting mix.

This winter we are pruning our member’s and viewers’ fruit trees as we have done for the last 3 years

Pots and containers offer the gardener great versatility and are a fantastic way to experiment with planting and design. From short-term bedding displays to permanent features of small trees and topiary, planting in pots adds another dimension to the garden, softening corners, brightening dull spots and providing instant, yet easily changeable, results.

Many trees can take a while to establish, so if you’re impatient, need an area to look good in a hurry, want some fast growing privacy trees, or are creating a garden from scratch, you might want to choose a fast-growing tree or two.

If you want your houseplants to look big and lush, pruning and regrowing them in the same pot is a smart idea! Plants like Pothos, Spider Plant, Philodendron, Snake Plant, ZZ Plant, English Ivy, Wandering Dude, Sedum, Herbs, String of Pearls, and String of Bananas can be easily grown from cuttings. Just cut a healthy stem or take baby plants, remove lower leaves, and plant them in the same pot as the parent plant for a fuller look. That's it.

I’ll sing you one, O Green grow the rushes, O What is your one, O? etc

What is a potager garden?

Red campion (Silene dioica) is a hardy herbaceous perennial in the pink or Caryophyllaceae family. Related to cultivated flowers such as dianthus and gypsophila, red campion is native to northern and central Europe. It grows wild across the UK in hedgerows, woodland and on northern and western sea-cliffs. Its vivid five-petalled rose-pink blooms can be seen in May and June, though plants can also flower less prolifically until September, or even later.

Mat Reese is head gardener at Malverleys in North Hampshire, where, with its owners, he has designed and developed a modern English flower garden over the past decade.

It is not so much a lawn as a moonscape: pitted craters dug by bandicoots, exhausted tufts of withered yellow grass plucked by wallabies and pitiful plants shrivelled brown under the Australian sunshine.

Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease that distorts the leaves of peaches and nectarines, and sometimes also apricots. The leaves crumple and thicken, and often have red blistery patches. Ultimately they fall off, and if your peach tree only has a handful of leaves left, it’s obvious that it won’t perform well.

Bare-root roses (those that are dug up from the nursery’s fields during dormancy and come without soil around their roots) are delivered from November onwards and can be planted throughout the winter. Now is the time to order for the widest choice of varieties and, come summer, the reward will be the most colourful, fragrant and quintessentially English garden flowers there are.

Taking root cuttings is a great way to propagate herbaceous perennials during the colder months while the plants are dormant. The process is simple and effective: it can yield lots of healthy and vigorous new plants from just one parent plant. Try it with Japanese anemones, oriental poppies, verbascum, acanthus and drumstick Primula denticulata.

If you’re wondering how to move plants, remember that deciduous trees and shrubs – those that lose their leaves during winter – are dormant now, so this is the best time to uproot them. Any time during autumn and spring when the branches are bare will  minimise the upheaval to them. Evergreens can be moved too, but you are better off waiting until late March for those, when the soil is starting to warm up again.

Transform your living space into a lush oasis with the allure of large houseplants, breathing life and vibrancy into your home. These botanical giants not only enhance the aesthetic appeal but also contribute to a healthier indoor environment. Dive into the world of verdant luxury as we explore the top 5 impressive large indoor plants that can be the statement piece your home deserves.

European larch (Larix decidua) is a tall-growing conifer that is only suitable for large gardens and woodland planting. The larch is one of a very few types of deciduous conifer, which makes it look particularly handsome in spring when the new needles are bright green, and again in autumn when turning bright gold before falling. Many small cones are produced and often remain on the tree for a long period. The cones open to reveal seeds that are a popular food source for wildlife.