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28.06.2024 - 15:39 / gardenersworld.com
Planting up a flower bed can seem a bit daunting to begin with. Initially, it’s important to consider factors such as the size of your bed, how much sun it gets, the quality of your soil and what kind of planting and colour scheme will suit your house style and your own preferences.
Make sure you plant for every season – not just spring and summer. Consider using evergreens, trees with good autumn colour and fruits, spring bulbs, and winter-flowering shrubs and climbers. Depending on the size of your garden and flower beds, you can create a mix of trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials, or cater for smaller areas with compact shrubs, perennials and bulbs.
Raised flower bed ideas Grow your own cut flowersIt’s quick and easy to grow your own cut flowers from seed. You can choose hardy and half-hardy annuals in a raised bed, or mix annuals with perennials, such as Phlox paniculata ‘Purple Eye Flame’, Achillea millefolium ‘Terracotta’ and Verbena bonariensis for a selection that will give you blooms for many years to come.
Bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and alliums work well as cut flowers, and annuals like calendula, Ammi majus, cornflowers and greater quaking grass will self-seed, providing plants in subsequent years with no effort on your part.
Planting up an attractive potager – an ornamental vegetable and herb garden – in a raised bed is a fantastic way to maximise the potential of a small space. Choose vibrant crops like purple kohlrabi, rainbow chard, ‘Batavia Red’ lettuce, calabrese ‘Purple Rain’ and yellow ‘All Gold’ raspberries.
Varieties with attractive foliage bring another element to your planting – try ‘Black Magic’ kale,
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If you have the good fortune to travel to other countries and see how other parts of the world garden, you know that it can be inspiring. I usually return from travel wanting to incorporate what I have seen into my own garden. Often, foreign travel takes us to climates vastly different than what we experience in the Southeastern United States. Our unique combination of hot humid summers and wet winters makes this a singular place to garden. One of the best parts of gardening is experimentation. I have both succeeded and failed in many garden endeavors. This often happens when I try and replicate something I have seen during foreign travel that cannot be done in my climate successfully. Here I’ve compiled a few memorable lessons and ideas I’ve gained after visiting more than 20 countries on a quest to see the best gardens on the globe.
Hi GPODers! Today we’re off to Wisconsin to get an update from Anna Tsai’s garden (you can check out earlier posts of Anna’s garden here: 21 Years of Hard Gardening Work Pay Off, Anna’s Wisconsin Paradise, and Anna’s Wisconsin Garden). Despite dealing with the harsh winters in Wisconsin, Anna is able to create timeless garden beauty with a multitude of fabulous flowers.
Each of our 2-for-1 Gardens has its own story to tell and many of these gardens have inspired famous authors, playwrights and poets. Enjoy a visit over the summer using your 2-for-1 Gardens card to these inspiring gardens and save money on your visit.
Each of our 2-for-1 Gardens has its own story to tell and many of these gardens have inspired famous authors, playwrights and poets. Enjoy a visit over the summer using your 2-for-1 Gardens card to these inspiring gardens and save money on your visit.
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As we enter the peak of rose season, join us as we take a ramble through some of the most romantic rose gardens in 2-for-1 Gardens. You can save money on visits to all of these rose gardens, using your 2-for-1 Gardens entry card. Visit soon to capture the roses in all their glory.
While college is a major change for students, it’s also a big transition for parents. Parenting from afar can be overwhelming and confusing, but one of the best ways to tackle this is to get prepared and plan ahead.
As we enter the peak of rose season, join us as we take a ramble through some of the nation’s most romantic rose gardens. You can save money on visits to all of these rose gardens, using your 2-for-1 Gardens entry card. Visit soon to capture the roses in all their glory.
Trellis can be an easy way to increase privacy in your garden, as it provides support for climbers such as clematis, roses, jasmine and sweet peas. Choose evergreen climbers and you can enjoy added privacy year round. Adding a trellis topper to an existing fence or wall is a simple way to create more room for climbers but there are many other trellis options, including fan-shaped panels that can be attached to house walls, trellis for containers and free-standing trellis, which can be used as a screen in your garden.
Summer might be the peak production season in your garden, but above-average temps and heat domes don’t quite make for happy horticulture. Even if you’re growing in a mild climate, plant protection throughout the summer is an important practice and can even be helpful when prepping for an out-of-town getaway that might disrupt your usual routine. From keeping an eye on the forecast so you can plot your next move, to knowing which plants need watering and those that definitely do not, we’re sharing all the tips to avoid any summer stress and keep you growing gracefully. Here’s to a resilient garden and not forgetting to protect and hydrate appropriately, yourself included.
Every guy needs a chill zone to escape the daily grind and just kick back. If this sounds like what you need, think about making a man cave for yourself. It's up to you to pick its purpose — be it a place to fix things, a spot to exercise, an area to play video games, or something unique. With some creativity, you can change a plain garden shed into a fantastic spot to do everything a man cave entails! Here’s a top guide for turning that shed into your ideal man cave.