Awards Ideas, Tips & Guides

“Chrysanthemums do have an image problem,” says Judy Barker, holder of the National Collection of winter-hardy chrysanthemums. A far cry from the fussy chrysanthemums that grace the benches of horticultural shows, the plants Judy recommends are easy to grow, and come in a great colour range of autumnal yellows, oranges, reds and russets, as well as vibrant pinks, sunny yellows and pure, brilliant white. They are an asset in the border and a boon to pollinating insects, but the key is plant choice. “If you want good border chrysanthemums, you have to pick plants that are fully winter hardy,” Judy says.

You can’t even begin to garden without the proper preparation of your soil. Well-maintained, aerated soil is necessary for your plants to be as strong and as healthy as possible. However, this is often quite a daunting task, requiring soil to be rejuvenated through loosening and turning over. Forks make this easy – they’re one of the simplest but most effective tools in the garden. Not only are they great for cultivating and getting areas of soil ready for planting & sowing, they’re also designed to easily lift and transplant plants. There are several different types of forks, and most people’s go-to is a digging fork. However, these forks can be unwieldy, and ill suited to smaller areas of the garden like borders. They can also be a  little too clumsy for more delicate tasks like transplanting plants and harvesting from raised beds. Border forks offer an easy alternative. A  little smaller and narrower than digging forks, they’re great for getting into tight spots without compromising on strength or efficiency. They offer a finesse that makes them great for weeding, or lifting clumps of perennials from cramped borders. Their lightness also helps if you have mobility issues, or if you lack strength and stamina. A good border fork turns all of the above from a backbreaker into a breeze. It should be indispensable; a lifetime companion in the garden.

From novices to experts, all gardeners need a trusty spade and they’re often the first tool that gardeners will buy when starting out. These staples of the shed are invaluable and can help with dozens of jobs around the garden. Digging spades are the most common style of spade and are the go-to spade for beginners but there are also several other styles and models of spades, which are designed with particular jobs in mind.

Adam Albright

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to get exclusive access to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show? Well, your dreams have come true because in this exclusive interview we got an all-access pass to THE horticultural event of the year thanks to Annie Guilfoyle, a 2024 judge. Annie is co-founder of Garden Masterclass in the UK and an award wining garden designer who earned a Silver Medal at Cheslea years ago for her innovative landscape design. Annie is just back from the show this year and shares details from her favorite gardens, interesting new plants that caught her attention, and even some celebrity gossip from those stars that were in attendance at the show. (Spoiler alert: she did not  see Lady Whistledown at the Bridgerton -themed garden). We discussed how native plants and sustainable practices played a role in this year’s event and talk about themes of water conservation and hardscape upcycling.   

The bamboo palm (Rhapsis excelsa) is an elegant evergreen fan palm. It has bamboo-like stems and fronds of long dark green leaves with blunt ends, making it an unusual, yet attractive, house plant. Several other house plants are also referred to as the bamboo palm, including Dypsis lutescens (also known as the Areca palm, golden cane palm or butterfly palm) and Chamaedorea seifrizii.

Show your green-fingered father figures how much they mean to you with our Fathers’ Day gardening gift guide. To help them create the garden of their dreams we’ve picked out some of our favourite  expert-tested, Best Buy winning gardening tools, and added some gardening themed treats. From beer to planters and pizza ovens to seeds, there’s something for everyone.

There’s a buzz in the air at this time of the year in the gardening world, as we look forward to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

A lush, green lawn is a source of pride and joy for many gardeners but it’s often where all the action takes place in the garden. The focal point for gatherings with friends and family, it can suffer from overuse and too much wear and tear. Terrific turf needs a good lawn care regime to achieve it and while regular mowing and watering will take you so far, there are a couple of additional tasks for your to do list, which will help keep your lawn in tip-top condition. Regardless of how often you cut your lawn, over time the soil underneath the turf becomes compacted, while above ground a thick, impenetrable layer of thatch and organic debris develops around the roots. This undesirable combination prevents air, water and nutrients from reaching deep down to the grass’ root system and ultimately weakens its growth, leaving the plant susceptible to pests and diseases. Scarifying your lawn will help remove thatch and debris, but if you need to relieve compacted soil underneath the turf, it’s best to aerate it. Aeration is the process of making air holes in the lawn to create ventilation. In small lawns a simple garden fork can be used to push holes into the ground but you can also buy manual aerators, either solid or hollow tined, which require the same effort as a fork. However, if you have a lot of lawn and not much time, other types of aerator are probably the best option. Whether you’re pushing a roller covered in spikes, or using a powered machine, these aerators are a labour-saving version of the trusty garden fork, mechanically making a series of holes in the lawn.

Image: Houghton Tower. Credit: Houghton Tower As sunnier days are approaching, it's finally the perfect time to get the family together and have a wander. If you're looking for the best gardens in Lancashire, or perhaps a walking trail or two, then here are some of our top picks to get you out and about – whatever the weather. Gardens & Halls Houghton Tower

1. The Promoter is Immediate Media Company London Limited (company number 06189487), Vineyard House, 44 Brook Green, London W6 7BT (“Immediate”). The competition is sponsored by Weetabix Limited (company number 00267687) (t/a “Alpen”).

Gardens of the Year 2024, sponsored by Alpen, is now open for entries and we want to see beautiful readers’ gardens of all styles and sizes. If you’d love to see your garden featured in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine and be in with a chance of winning a fantastic holiday prize, enter our exciting competition now. We’re looking for gardens from all over the UK – no plot is too big or too small. Previous finalists have included flower-filled allotments, tiny urban balconies and sprawling country gardens.

TO SAY I WAS surprised would be understating it. A lot. When I got the call from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania recently that I’d been named as the 2024 recipient of their prestigious Scott Medal, I was completely caught off guard.

Many gardens have shady areas, where sun-loving plants won’t thrive. The good news is that there’s plenty of plants that can tolerate or even do better in a shaded position.

On October 9, 2023, Travis Gienger from Anoka, Minnesota, set the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, weighing 2749 pounds. The record was previously held by Stefano Cutrupi with a pumpkin weighing 2708.8 lbs. Gienger had already established the U.S. record in the previous year with a 2560-pounder and in 2020 with one weighing 2350 pounds.

When you’re working on DIY projects it can sometimes be useful to have a tool that can do more than one job. Cutting, sanding, polishing, and scraping, the best multi-tool can perform all these tasks, so to find the outstanding tools in this field we reviewed two different types of multi-tools. Oscillating multi-tools that move a blade or sanding head back and forth, and rotary multi-tools that spin cutting discs or polishing mops around at high speeds.

Early summer displays simply aren't the same without alliums. Their spherical shape and vivid colours welcome early summer with gusto, adding texture and height to your borders.  These blooms reappear year after year, too! Great for those on a budget. Wondering which to grow in your gardens? Here are our top 10 alliums to grow for summer.  Image In order: Mount Everest, Violet Beauty, Millenium, and sphaerocephalon

Image: Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda Dahlias are one of our top sellers for the spring season, and it’s easy to see why. They’re big and bountiful, adding colours and textures to the summer garden. And, with the new season finally upon us, we have a brand-NEW selection of impressive dahlias for you to know and grow! Here are just a few picks from our range that we’re loving. But, if you’d like to explore our full range or even pre-order your favourites, then visit our dahlia tubers page here. Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda

2023 marked our 90th year, and what a year it was! Our team have been busy behind the scenes, always making sure that our customers have the best shopping experience, while simultaneously trying to push the boat out further than ever before.

The Society of Garden Designers has announced ten finalists across three award categories, in its annual SGD Student Awards, including the recently introduced urban sustainability award.  The shortlist was chosen by a judging panel that includes SGD Fellows Sarah Morgan FSGD and David Stevens FSGD and Tom Massey MSGD, who was a recipient of two of the first SGD Student Awards in 2015.

Our eleventh prize is a Gold Smokebox, worth £105 from Lambton & Jackson.

If you’re looking for some new tools to help you in the garden then Black Friday is a great time to get them. The sales event sees hundreds of retailers cut prices on thousands of products so there are plenty of bargains to choose from.

“Chrysanthemums do have an image problem,” says Judy Barker, holder of the National Collection of winter-hardy chrysanthemums. A far cry from the fussy chrysanthemums that grace the benches of horticultural shows, the plants Judy recommends are easy to grow, and come in a great colour range of autumnal yellows, oranges, reds and russets, as well as vibrant pinks, sunny yellows and pure, brilliant white. They are an asset in the border and a boon to pollinating insects, but the key is plant choice. “If you want good border chrysanthemums, you have to pick plants that are fully winter hardy,” Judy says.

A good pair of garden shears can make garden tasks quick and easy to tackle. They’re essential for the proper care of hedges, shrubs, and lawns, helping to keep them in tip-top condition. Unlike secateurs, which are designed for pruning single branches, garden shears can tackle several branches or blades of grass at once. There are a couple of different types –

If you know about just 1 Ugly Fish, then you might be in for a surprise! This article covers some of the most Ugliest Fishes in the World!

Vote now, and pick the garden you’d like to win this year’s People’s Choice award for the Gardens of the Year Competition 2023, sponsored by Yeo Valley. Take a look at this year’s finalists, and vote for your favourite below. Voting closes at noon on Monday 6 November.

Secateurs and loppers are handy pruning tools but for thicker branches a pruning saw is the tool for the job. The last resort before you need a chainsaw, a pruning saw has a toothed blade capable of cutting branches 5cm thick and above and many different shapes and sizes are available, from compact folding saws that fit in the pocket to long, straight, fixed blades that need a holster to keep them safe. All have a high carbon steel blade, and many have been designed to cut a particular type or thickness of wood. As a rule of thumb, the longer the blade the thicker the wood it can cut, but strength of blade, sharpness of teeth and how long they stay sharp, as well as grip and comfort will all affect how easily and well a saw will cut.

When it comes to pruning season, trimming and shaping trees and shrubs with thick, woody growth can feel like a daunting task. While your secateurs and other essential gardening tools may not be up to the task, a strong pair of anvil garden loppers is more than capable of tackling tougher trimming jobs. Used with with both hands their long handles make them ideal for cutting branches up to 50mm thick and if you’re pruning dense dead wood, then a pair of loppers with an anvil blade is the tool for you. Cuts are made as the top blade slices through the wood onto the flat anvil base. They can crush stems as they cut and although bypass blades make cleaner, more precise cuts, anvil blades have greater force. They are ideal for clearing dead branches and making the first cut on thick branches before removing them cleanly with bypass loppers or a saw. Loppers are available with telescopic handles that extend for greater reach and most have an additional cutting mechanism to help you cut thicker wood with less effort, helpful for those with less strength and for very tough wood.

Compost is full of the nutrients your plants need, so it’s an ideal fertiliser, organic mulch, and soil improver. Just put your garden waste and some kitchen waste into a compost bin and it will break down over a year or so to reveal fresh, home-made compost.

Secateurs are an indispensable tool, essential for tidying up around the garden. While tools like hedge trimmers and other cordless garden tools are ideal for taking on heavy duty tasks, secateurs are a simple, hand-held tool used for keeping on top of pruning, dead-heading, cutting back perennials and harvesting fruit, veg and flowers. Available as bypass, anvil and ratchet, each type is designed for a particular job:

In the autumn months it’s glorious to see the leaves turn from green through to golden brown but once they start to fall and cover our gardens, it’s a different matter. While those that settle on bare ground in the veg patch and in beds can be left to rot down to act as a mulch, piles of leaves on lawns, borders, paths and patios are best cleared away to prevent them becoming a hotbed for pests and diseases or creating a dangerously slippery surface once the wet weather arrives.

It’s a classic British summertime scene: the sun’s just peeked out from behind the clouds, the temperature’s barely in double digits, but all along the street there’s the delicious smell of smoky, charcoal cooked food.

A well kept, manicured lawn is a point of pride for gardeners and maintaining it should be one of the easiest tasks in the garden. There’s a huge choice of different mowers on the market but electric corded mowers are the most common and one of the easiest to use. They’re quiet, light and easy to manoeuvre plus they’re clean with no fuel fumes or regular servicing needed. They’re also the cheapest, but do you get what you pay for? To find out if paying less means you lose out on features or performance our gardening experts tested a range of corded electric lawn mowers that won’t break the bank.

A lawn mower may be one of the first purchases we make when getting a garden of our own, but that doesn’t mean finding a good quality one is easy. There are so many models and brands on the market to choose from, including corded electric and petrol, but as their range increases and prices fall, cordless, battery-powered models are an increasingly popular option.

A hose can be an essential bit of kit for a gardener, making the task of watering your garden much easier than heaving a heavy watering can back and forth from the tap. Choosing the right hose will depend on the size of your garden, how much time you spend watering and, of course, your budget. We researched the most popular garden hoses on the market and rigorously tested them to bring you our list of the 10 best garden hoses, including bare hoses, expandable hoses and garden hose reels.

Choosing the best lawn mower can be a tricky task, with so many models on the market and such a wide range of brands. There are five main types of mower available at hugely varying prices and all with different features that need to be considered.