Composting Ideas, Tips & Guides

A modern take on a traditional Christmas wreath, get the whole family involved in foraging and you can even add new dried elements to it every year. This one is created using ivy, eucalyptus and a mix of evergreens. You could even spray a few sprigs of eucalyptus to match the colour scheme of your home.

Q: I’m going away for Christmas, but I’m a bit concerned about all my houseplants in my absence. Do you think it would be a good idea to get a friend to pop by (we’ll be gone for nearly a fortnight) to water them while I’m gone? SK, Dublin

When the celebrations are over and decorations have been packed away, it’s time to think about how to reuse your cut Christmas tree, instead of sending it to landfill. From shredding it to make mulch to using it as a frame for climbing plants, there are many ways to put the wood and needles to good use.

[The following introduction is an excerpt from our second book, “Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to The Biggest Harvest Possible”]

One of the best things about using the Freyr trellis and compostable strings to support your crops: end of season cleanup! All you do is cut the strings, bundle up your debris and toss it into the compost. If you’ve ever spent hours detangling vines from metal mesh or plastic netting, you may understand what a game changer this can be! Below you’ll find a few videos of us cleaning up tall, vining crops from the Freyr trellis at the end of the season.

Where do hedgehogs live?

Rhipsalis is a low-maintenance, hanging house plant that’s perfect for beginners. Although it has no prickles, it’s a cactus and known as the mistletoe cactus. This may be because the tiny, white flowers that appear along its stems through winter into spring are followed by small, white or pale-pink berries or because its spineless foliage looks a little like mistletoe.

White Christmas Cactus, £11.99 from Hortology

As well as being that haloed place where one can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and a hot soak, the bathroom is also one of the best rooms to grow house plants. Its high humidity is a haven for a lot of indoor plants because so many of them hail from tropical or subtropical forests. There they flourish in the consistently damp, warm air and the light that pours in between the trees. These plants will feel right at home in bathrooms, shower rooms, and kitchens, if provided with the indirect light and average-to-warm temperature that most of them crave.

Dramatic and elegant, amaryllis (Hippeastrum) are bulbous indoor plants that cheer us through the coldest months. The huge flowers bloom atop tall, sturdy stems, opening like colourful trumpets, as if about to blast away the winter blues with a clarion call.

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This article has been checked for horticultural accuracy by Oliver Parsons.

Wildlife gardening has many benefits. By growing plants, digging a pond and creating other habitats, such as log piles and compost heaps, we can provide homes for wildlife that would otherwise be homeless. There are around 30 million gardens in the UK. Potentially, if enough of us garden with wildlife in mind we can help slow down or even reverse declines of some species, like hedgehogs, right across the country.

Choosing the perfect fertilizer for this festive plant is essential to ensure a dazzling display of flowers just in time for the holiday season! Let’s explore the top options, both organic and commercial, tailored specifically for your Christmas Cactus.

Gardeners who grow in containers may find themselves asking “Can you reuse potting soil?” In this article, I’m going to answer that question, along with a few others you might have about recycling used potting soil. Commercially made potting soils are expensive, and even if you follow ourDIY potting soil recipes and make your own mixes, the cost can still take a bite out of your gardening budget. Reusing potting soil can help. But it won’t work in every situation, and you have to follow a few guidelines to ensure the health of your container plants. Let’s dig in!

Coleus plants are easy to care for, low-maintenance, and grow quickly, which makes them ideal for beginners.

Philodendron Red Emerald is native to parts of Brazil and is popular for the red tinge it has on the foliage, which makes it stand out from the other houseplants!

It can be easy to get swept up in the merriment of Christmas: buying lavish gifts and an abundance of food and decorations. And that’s before you’ve even considered the tree. But there are ways you can reduce the waste your household contributes to this year and be more sustainable by focusing on natural resources.

Hardy fuchsias are commonly grown in UK gardens, and it’s no surprise – many flower from June to November and need very little care. Native to Central and South America, most hardy fuchsias survive UK winters (RHS hardiness rating H4), although some may still require protection from the harshest weather (RHS hardiness rating H3 or H2). In milder parts of the UK, hardy fuchsias can grow into a shrub up to 3m in height but in colder regions they may be damaged by frost and require cutting back to the base, from where they regrow in spring.

We’ve got the scoop on Chicken Dust Bath Ideas for Homesteaders that’ll make your feathered friends flap joyfully! What are you waiting for? Scroll for easy and simple ideas.

Who would be without a hellebore or two in the dark months of February and early March, when we long for the onset of spring? Their generous, characterful flowers bring colour and hope to the garden when we need it most, and they really don’t need much to keep them happy.

As inextricable from mass festive wares as tinsel and paper hats, the poinsettia blazes red in most shops and homes during December. Being such an omnipresent sight makes it unappealing for many of us, but, thankfully – if the standard scarlet species makes you wince – there are less common forms available that are well worth buying to brighten the house this Christmas.

Perhaps the most beautiful of flowering trees, magnolias are adorned with luxurious, flamboyant flowers in spring and summer. These generous blooms are goblet- or saucer-shaped and a handful or more in size.

Poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, is an attractive house plant with dark green leaves and leafy red ‘bracts’ that surround the green-yellow flowers in December and January. They’re commonly used to decorate the home at Christmas. Native to Mexico, poinsettias can be tricky to keep alive after Christmas and most are thrown away after the red bracts have faded and the festivities have ended. However, with a little care and attention it’s possible to keep your poinsettia alive throughout the year and even encourage red bracts and flowers to form in time for the following Christmas.

Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum) is also known as everlasting flower, immortelle and paper daisy. Strawflower plants have an upright habit and branching flower stems topped with many-petalled blooms to 8cm across. Hardy annuals, strawflowers bloom abundantly from summer into autumn, in shades of red, pink, yellow, orange, purple and white. The naturally dry texture of the blooms makes them an excellent choice as cut flowers to use fresh, or in dried arrangements that will last for years. Strawflower grows quickly and easily from seed and lasts for one growing season only.

As this is my final gardening column of the year, I had plans of signing off with a neat garden ready for a winter of hibernation.

After a few days of clear sunny days and blue skies, even with a hint of warmth in the sun on Thursday, it was almost inevitable that we would soon be seeing our first frost of the season – and so it was, arriving like a thief in the night. Temperatures dipped to -2°C in the early hours, and haven’t risen above 5°C for the rest of the day, finally putting paid to autumn for this year.

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.

Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum) is also known as everlasting flower, immortelle and paper daisy. Strawflower plants have an upright habit and branching flower stems topped with many-petalled blooms to 8cm across. Hardy annuals, strawflowers bloom abundantly from summer into autumn, in shades of red, pink, yellow, orange, purple and white. The naturally dry texture of the blooms makes them an excellent choice for using as cut flowers to use fresh, or in dried arrangements that will last for years. Strawflower grows quickly and easily from seed and lasts for one growing season only.

Aspen (Populus tremula) is a deciduous, broadleaf tree known for its habit of ‘quaking’ or ‘trembling’ in the slightest breeze. Indeed, its botanical name ‘tremula’ was given due to its trembling habit, and it’s also known as ‘quaking aspen’. Aspen tree leaves have flattened, flexible leaf stalks, which is how they are able to flutter so easily.

On holiday in Portugal one spring, I was intrigued to see a very familiar plant in very unfamiliar (to me, anyway) surroundings. Among the orange groves and ornately-tiled pavements was a municipal planter, out of it leaning a rather old and leggy poinsettia, with straggly woody stems, with small bracts at the end. The gentle warmth of the Algarve in March was a world away from the winter supermarket dashes that I tend to associate these plants with.

Growing beetroot is easy, giving you delicious, round, red roots that can be boiled, roasted and pickled – and even grated into salads. The colourful young leaves can be picked fresh and used in salads, and mature leaves can be wilted and used as spinach. There’s a wide variety of beetroot to grow, with orange, yellow and pink cultivars to choose from.

If you're looking for how to get rid of carpenter ants, you've come to the right place.

Cucamelons (Melothria scabra) are a unique and fascinating fruit also known as ‘Mexican sour gherkins’ or ‘mouse melons’. Despite their name, they’re not a cross between cucumbers and watermelons, but rather a distinct species that belongs in the cucumber family. They are native to Mexico and Central America, where they’ve been cultivated for centuries.

No fancy tricks or complicated formulas here, just simple and fun ways to give back to Mother Earth. So, buckle up because this is all about Composting Made Easy!

Leave the leaves is the new gardening mantra.