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As part of your Premium access, you can send your gardening questions to our horticultural experts each month. They will then answer a selection of the questions they receive, and share the advice at the end of the month.

Can I Cut a Tree Root Without Killing the Tree? If you think your tree's roots will cause problems, here's how to cut them without killing the tree. When can you cut a tree root?

I put down a lavender border last summer on my driveway. Unfortunately, it looks like the winter frost damaged some of the plants. They are quite brown and sad looking compared with the others. Will they come back or should I cut my losses? GL, Co Kildare

Q: Is this a good time of the year to plant lilac? And if so, could you please recommend some varieties that don’t grow too large? JK, Dublin

Are you looking for funny cat puns?  This family-friendly roundup has 150 paw-some cat jokes and hilarious cat puns to put a smile on your face.

Stacy Zarin Goldberg

Want to know the secret to a lush, green, and thriving lawn and the right tools? Keep reading to find out How Often Can I Apply Sulfur to My Lawn and transform your garden into an envy-inducing show-stopper!

In the verdant world of gardening and outdoor living, British Garden Centre vouchers become a key to unlocking a treasure trove of possibilities. As you hold these vouchers in your hands, you're not just carrying monetary value; you're entering a realm where blooms, foliage, and tranquility converge. Let's explore the myriad ways you can turn these vouchers into a flourishing experience.

Q: I have a beautiful Clematis montana that I planted in my garden many years ago, but it’s now got too large and is threatening to pull down an old garden fence. Can I prune it back hard without damaging the plant? AL, Co Longford

Q: Now that it’s late autumn, my dahlias are starting to die back. Can I leave the plants in the ground or do I need I lift the tubers and store them in my shed for the winter? I’d much prefer the first option if possible! MD, Kilkenny

As part of your Premium access, you can send your gardening questions to our horticultural experts each month. They will then answer a selection of the questions they receive, and share the advice at the end of the month.

As part of your Premium access, you can send your gardening questions to our horticultural experts each month. They will then answer a selection of the questions they receive, and share the advice at the end of the month.

As part of your Premium access, you can send your gardening questions to our horticultural experts each month. They will then answer a selection of the questions they receive, and share the advice at the end of the month.

Although August is the height of the summer, and it’s worthwhile taking time to stop and smell the roses, the vegetable gardener also has to be aware that autumn is just around the corner. That doesn’t have to be a depressing thought! It just means you need to harvest any crops that won’t survive the first frosts, and that you may want to preserve some so that you can have a homegrown taste of summer during the winter months. You should have some new crops on the way to look forward to, and be thinking about potting up herbs to bring under cover for the winter.

If October starts warm it can provide a nice breathing space, to catch up late harvesting, saving seeds and generally getting the garden ready for the winter. It’s also the time to cover any bare soil, with mulches if necessary, to protect your soil structure from bad weather, and to ensure any tall plants (mainly brassicas) are staked against ‘wind rock’, which can lift their roots out of the soil. You may also need to net brassicas to stop them being munched by marauding pigeons.

Ah, April, a month that gives us leaves on the trees, blossom in the hedgerow, and a headache with its changeable weather. We gardeners would love April to be a season of sunshine and soft showers. But, instead, we need to plan for sleet and hail, or even snow. As the effects of climate change are felt more widely, we may even need to forego thinking of April as a rainy month at all, and just an extension of dry winters. It’s also at least a month before we can be relatively sure that there will be no more frosts.

You’ll hear weather forecasters referring to spring from the beginning of March, as meteorological spring starts on March 1st. The spring equinox, when the days start to get longer than the nights, is around 20th March. Actual signs of spring – warmer days and plant growth – may take longer to appear!

December is another quiet month in the garden, when the bad weather is a good excuse to spend time indoors planning for next year. What worked well this year? What wasn’t as good? What do you want to add/remove/change? Winter is traditionally the time when structural changes are made in the garden, so you could be out there on nice days, building new beds or improving the paths. Try and stay off wet or frozen soil, as compaction will hurt the soil structure. Walking on boards is an option, if you need to be out there.

Fresh from the excesses of Christmas, and with the urge to turn over a new leaf, now might be a good time to tackle getting the garden ready for the season ahead! If you need to make structural changes, such as building or moving beds, or adding/improving paths, then bright days are useful. But, of course, January tends to be cold and wet, and the short days mean gardening is usually confined to the weekends.

February is the month when the keenest gardeners really get going, sowing seeds into heated propagators indoors, perhaps even rigging up the grow lights. They’re aiming to give their tender veg (tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and sweet peppers, for the most part) the longest possible growing season, and to have the earliest crops.

The weather can be lovely in September, allowing us to carry on harvesting summer crops, which can make it difficult to pull them up and make room for winter ones! We may be able to put off thinking about winter, but one fact we can’t escape is the shortening days. They will soon be too short for most plants to put on any significant growth, which is why winter crops need to be in the ground as quickly as possible.

There’s something nice about the idea that there’s not much to do in the garden in November. That the gardener can potter around doing little bits and pieces, and justifiably spend the wet ones indoors. It’s like a holiday from the garden, after a long season of hard work.

Can I grow acai berry trees? Often compared to the blueberry for its similar nutritional benefits, acai products made from this trendy superfood have been finding their way onto grocery store shelves. But due to their short shelf life, fresh berries are difficult to purchase outside acai berry growing zones. Learn all about how to grow acai berries at home.