Spring Ideas, Tips & Guides

How to Grow Spinach For gardeners eager to start in spring and reluctant to quit in fall, spinach is the ideal «shoulder season» crop. With a range of varieties, there's a spinach for every garden! Learn how to grow it here. Grow spinach in spring or fall!

Secrets to Easy Multiseason Container Garden Plantings Create stunning year-round container displays using this simple method from Heather Thomas of Cape Cottage Garden. Multiseason container garden planting made easy!

Flower Pounding on Fabric Flower pounding is a fun and easy way to capture the beauty of your garden blooms and turn them into stunning botanical prints. Tips for flower pounding on fabric

7 Ways To Get Rid of Garden Pests without Pesticides Try a few of these no-spray methods to deter bugs in the garden without resorting to harmful pesticides. How to deal with garden pests without chemicals

Tips for Growing Mint Mint is an excellent addition to any cocktail garden! Learn the secrets for growing this classic herb and how to keep it from taking over your garden. Add mint to your cocktail garden!

Salad with a Side of Slug Growing lettuce is rewarding but sometimes it comes with more than you bargained for! The joy of growing your own greens

Electric Mower Upgrade For the Win! Jamie shares that feeling when you finally get to upgrade your old decrepit mower for a shiny new electric model. The saga of our mower

You've Heard of No-Mow May — Try a Bee Lawn Instead! Maybe you have heard of «No-Mow May», but learn about the long-term benefits of installing a bee lawn from conservation expert, James Wolfin. Is “No-Mow May” a good idea?

Tips for Growing a Rooftop Garden No green space? No problem! Learn how this Chicago gardener created a beautiful rooftop garden in the city. Smart tips for a successful rooftop garden

2024 Container Garden Challenge Winners! Check out these winning designs from our 2024 Container Challenge! We'll share their planting plans and tips to inspire you to grow your best container garden. Our readers' best container garden ideas

If You Give a Gardener a Rake.... Sometimes starting a few garden chores in spring has a way of turning into an all-day affair! Finding joy in spring chores

How to Create Colorful Flower Borders Learn how Heather Thomas of Cape Cottage Garden keeps her flower borders colorful from spring through fall! Tour Heather Thomas’ colorful flower borders in New Jersey

Feed Pollinators with These Cool-Season Plant Combinations Keep pollinators happy with these spring and fall blooming plant combinations! Grow cool-season plants for pollinators

Maximize Your Vegetable Harvest with Succession Planting Learn the secrets to extending your vegetable harvest through succession planting from Minnesota gardener Meg Cowden. 4 ways to get the most out of your vegetable garden

Colorful Spring Garden Bed with ‘Hino-Crimson’ Azalea Start your growing season by showcasing the vibrant blooms of 'Hino-Crimson' azalea along with other shade garden favorites. Add a burst of spring color with ‘Hino-Crimson’ azalea

'Hino-Crimson' Azalea Bring dramatic spring color to your shade garden with 'Hino-Crimson' azalea! ‘Hino-Crimson’ azalea packs a punch of color!

How to Start Broccoli from Seed

Harvest Hearty Greens from the Garden: How to Grow Kale Brassica oleracea var.acephala

9 of the Best Companion Plants to Grow with Broccoli

How to Identify and Control Bok Choy Diseases

How to Grow and Care for Fennel Foeniculum vulgare

Showy Shade Garden Ideas Create a beautiful shade garden with these plant combinations that showcase foliage and shade-blooming flowers. Planting ideas for your shade garden

How to Grow Bulbs on a Budget Gorgeous spring blooms are a worthy investment, and here are tips on how to grow bulbs while making the most of your budget and time. Enjoy a colorful spring garden with flowering bulbs — even on a budget!

If you’ve never heard of a bulb lasagne you’re probably raising your eyebrows right now.  It is a real gardening ‘thing’ though!

If you’re looking for easy seeds to grow with children, it’s hard to beat growing sunflowers in pots. If you’re not gardening with children, sunflowers are still fantastic plants to grow, and they make wonderful cut sunflowers too.

Cornish hedges are an exuberant delight. I visited in April a few years back, and every lane was awash with alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum). This year, in May, they put on a stunning display that would put a Chelsea show garden to shame.

One of the great joys of spring is seeing trees leaf out and bloom. They bring so much joy, and do so much for us, and yet are rarely valued as they should be. In particular, ancient trees are wondrous, magical things. Impressive and complex structures, they have lots of nooks and crannies in which wildlife can find a home. As fungi feed on the tree they provide food for woodland creatures, and a hollowed out trunk provides shelter. Although ancient trees are in the final stage of their life, and technically in decline, they have a lot to give, and can go on living for a long time, depending on the species.

Two things came together to prompt this post on edible spring flowers. The first was that we invited Ryan’s parents round for dinner on Mothering Sunday, and I pondered buying some spring flowers for a table decoration that I could later plant out in the garden as additions to my edible flower collection.

There comes a day, in late winter, when the gardener inside me wakes up and emerges, somewhat paler, fatter and less able to heft heavy bags of compost than she was when she went into hibernation for the winter. It should have been yesterday, which was bright and sunny, but for various reasons she overslept and got up this morning.

This year’s Show the Love campaign has a theme of ‘noticing change’. The idea is that, for Valentine’s Day, hearts are turning green to #ShowtheLove for everything we care for that’s under threat from climate change, from fluttering butterflies to walks in ancient woods.

On Thursday I sowed the first seeds of the season – two varieties of purple sprouting broccoli (Red Arrow and Lancer) and pepper Gogorez F1. They’ve been sitting in modules on the floor, benefiting from the warmth from the underfloor heating. The broccoli have already germinated, the peppers will take a bit longer.

We’re not quite done with April showers – it’s raining. Spring is a bit behind schedule this year, but it is May and there are spring flowers!

We may not be free of frosts yet, but it seems as though spring has come at last! The trees are leafing up, buds are bursting all over the place, and the grass and the weeds are growing. Some of the blossom has been and gone already, in a hurry to catch up and get on with things.

The sun is shining this morning, but the forecast says there will be more rain later. And more rain and wind tomorrow. The weather so far this year has not been conducive to gardening, and that “must sow seeds” feeling hasn’t kicked in yet. I did manage to nip outside for five minutes last month to sow broad beans in modules, but that’s as far as I got.

How to Naturalize Spring Flower Bulbs in the Landscape

Ready for spring 2024? Our new autumn range is here, ready to help you grow the spring garden of your dreams. But what will you grow? Garden trends change every year, and we love to stay up to date! Here are just a few garden trends we expect to see in spring next year.  Colour Coordinated  Purples with pinks, yellows with oranges, whites with green.