36 Gardening Gift Ideas in 2023 | Gift Ideas for Gardeners

Eileen wins the holiday of a lifetime, including a luxury one-night stay at Middle Eight, a chic hotel set in bustling Covent Garden, whose streets are lined with some of the capital’s best shops and restaurants, and a night at The Guardsman, an exclusive boutique hotel just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.

Our nearby town always puts a lot of effort into its floral displays, on approaches into the town and in the main park at the foot of the castle, and is regularly the winner in its regional category of Britain in Bloom. Most of the plants used are annuals, but they do use some perennials of which I have been known to take the odd cutting or two. One year I decided to regularise this and emailed the local council to ask what they did with their plants at the end of the season, and if I could take the occasional cutting. It transpired that there is no longer such a thing as a ‘parks department’ and no facility for growing on or protecting plants; young plants are bought in, planted straight out and composted at the end of the season.

Home-grown peaches are well worth the extra effort involved in growing them, as their fuzzy, juicy fruits taste better than any peach you can buy in the shops.

This month, we’re collaborating with some brilliant businesses to bring you our very special “12 days of Christmas” prize draw, offering 12 generous prizes to 12 lucky winners throughout the month of December.

If you consider window boxes a decidedly springtime pursuit, let these fall flower box ideas change your mind. From edible cabbages with volume, texture, and color to spare to plumes of spiky salvias that bring saturated moody hues, these unexpected fall flower box ideas are bound to be a treat. Want to make even more of your autumnal elements? Just about any of these ideas can get an extra dose of fall with the addition of small pumpkins or gourds. Simply add them anywhere a little filler is needed.

We’re back with more from Susan Esche’s visit to the beautiful University of British Columbia Botanical Garden in Vancouver in early September. It is open to the public and has many different sections and types of gardens to explore.

We’ve visited Susan Esche’s home garden before (A Garden Wedding, the Flowers, and the Deer), but today she’s taking us along to visit a public garden in Vancouver, British Columbia.

There’s around 100 species of helicona, most of which are evergreen perennials native to tropical Central and Southern America. Their enormous glossy leaves are similar to banana plants and can grow to 120cm long. As heliconia can’t be grown in frost prone areas, there are few regions where these plants can be grown outdoors, although some varieties could be placed outdoors in summer. Heliconia flowers come in shades of red, orange, green and yellow.

We often hear from Cherry Ong when she’s traveling to visit a marvelous public garden, but today she’s letting us in to see her home garden in Richmond, British Columbia. She says that she’s learned to love fall and is sharing the beauty of her shade garden with pictures she took in early October.

Header image: An artist’s depiction of a fictional Mars colony, with solar arrays and underground greenhouses. Image credit: NASA

Collaborative post

When creating a stylish and relaxing garden we often tend to think of perfectly tended flowerbeds, expertly trimmed topiary and carefully selected garden furniture. Whilst these all help to create a stunning garden it often takes something out of the ordinary to add the finishing touch and create a truly unique space.