27 of the Best Dahlia Varieties for Your Garden
29.02.2024 - 15:29 / gardenersworld.com
Britain is famously a nation of wildlife lovers. But with a 68% drop in wild animal populations since 1970, it’s more important than ever to look out for the natural world.
This gift guide is packed with animal-friendly wildlife gifts. It includes shelters for birds, bees and hedgehogs, as well as wildlife cameras, so your favourite nature lover can see nocturnal creatures up close and personal. There’s also a range of accessories like binoculars and bat detectors, themed gifts and books.
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With bird populations declining, it’s more important than ever to provide them a home. Handwoven from recycled saris by Fairtrade workers in Bangladesh, this hanging nesting box is practical as well as pretty.
Price: £19.95
Buy the Shesali Artisan Nester from Ethical Superstore
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National Trust CJ Wildlife Build Your Own Nest Box KitFor a more hands-on approach, check out this nest box. It makes a great project to teach kids about DIY, or for an adult to have a relaxing 20 minutes of building. All of the FSC wood panels are ready cut, and all the screws and nails are included. Because the wood is plain, you could paint it in any colour you like, too.
Price: £13.99
Buy the National Trust CJ Wildlife Build Your Own Nest Box Kit at CJ Wildlife
Navaris XL Wooden Insect HotelInsect populations are rapidly declining, but bug hotels can help to reverse this trend. The Navaris XL Wooden Insect Hotel has different kinds of habitats for a variety of different insects. We
27 of the Best Dahlia Varieties for Your Garden
A solar water feature is a wonderful addition to the garden, bringing the relaxing sound of a babbling brook into a residential space. Solar water features also have the added benefit of being much better for the environment than their mains-powered counterparts, using clean energy that won’t cost – or harm – the earth.
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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.
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”).
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The beautiful balcony plants on the terrace at the London house of Henrietta Courtauld of the Land Gardeners
They say that you can tell a surprising amount about a gardener by the kind of potatoes they grow. Some of us, for example, are traditionalists who’ll plump for the floury, fluffy ‘British Queen’ (colloquially known as ‘Queens’) every time. Others are passionate foodies who prefer the firm, waxy, flavoursome, yellow flesh of a salad potato such as ‘Charlotte’, or the heirloom ‘La Ratte’. Individualists, meanwhile, often like to seek out unusual kinds, such as the dark magenta-fleshed ‘Vitanoire’, or the knobbly ‘Pink Fir Apple’, the heritage variety famed for its more-ishness.
Cherry Ong has been sharing with us the little side-yard garden in her Richmond, British Columbia, garden. She calls the space the Fern Fairway, and she’s shown us how it looks during the warmer months of the year (The Fern Fairway in Summer). Today she’s sharing how it looks in winter.
Gustavo Caballero / Getty Images
Good gift inspiration for gardening mothers can be hard to come by. A thoughtful present for a Mother’s Day could be anything from a comfortable knee pad, to a personalised pot but to give it that special touch for Mother’s Day requires something more than just practicality.
15 of the Best Annuals for Vivid Fall Color