Astrobotany Image: Thomas Pesquet with tomato seeds

SOME OF THE many unusual fruits that Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano grow in their arboretum in the Hudson Valley of New York, like goji berries or maybe Schisandra (above), are ones you’re more likely to see on ingredient labels of health food store products than for sale in nurseries or growing in gardens. But grow them you can.

Fruits often take center stage thanks to how quickly they appease our taste buds. But what about food for our eyes? It’s simple: grow these fruits with beautiful foliage, and you’ll get two things: a delicious homegrown harvest and a display of decorative leaves.

Q: We’ve just moved into our home, a new build in the countryside, and don’t have much of a budget to create a garden. We’d like to start by sowing a traditional lawn around the house, which is just a big expanse of bare soil and weeds. Any tips would be great. CB, Co Meath

Looking to step up your flower gardening game? We’ve tapped into the tasteful toolbelt of Hannah Rose Rivers Muller, master florist farmer and author of Designing With Dried Flowers, who shares her selects for stylish yet practical farm gear that she personally uses while busy harvesting at Full Belly Farm. Well known for pioneering the Northern California field-to-vase movement, Hannah is no stranger to getting her hands dirty and knowing the type of quality gear needed when working in a fast-pace seasonally driven industry.

Companion planting is the centuries-old practice of pairing plants in the garden that benefit one another. Our gardens function as interconnected communities, with different plants providing unique services. Some plants attract beneficial insects, others ward off pests, while some enhance soil health. Anyone who’s grown tomatoes knows they are heavy feeders, and often plagued by foliar diseases and a diversity of insect pests. They certainly stand to benefit from tomato companion plants that promote healthier plants and increased yields.

19 of the Best Companion Plants to Grow with Lavender

In January I visited the world’s largest horticultural show in Essen, Germany, and came away with some great take-aways, but I was especially impressed with the significant trend of pruning, training and grafting certain plants into new and unusual forms.

‘Twin flowers’

Hello, Gardeners of the Galaxy! It’s time for another exciting episode, and our Mission Specialist this time is the wonderful Borja Barbero Barcenilla, who is talking about what happens to plant telomeres in space. Borja and I had a brilliant chat about his breathtaking research, including an upcoming flight experiment, a special mutant Arabidopsis strain, and the sci-fi experience of putting your plants into a particle accelerator. And if you’ve ever wondered what plant a Spaniard would choose to take into space, well… you won’t want to miss it!

As gardeners, we’re very aware of the environment around us. We notice the impact of the changing climate as our plants struggle through drier summers, or are able to over-winter with less protection than in previous years. But we’re also in a uniquely fortunate position. The decisions we make in our own gardens can make a difference to the wider environment. Here, Frances Tophill shares why it’s so important to garden sustainably, and how she does this in her own garden.

In April 2014, a cherry tree unexpectedly bloomed at the Ganjoji temple in central Japan. The tree grew from a seed that spent eight months on the International Space Station (ISS), and when the sapling flowered it was only four years old. Trees of this species don’t normally flower until they are ten. This tree grew from a seed harvested from the celebrated “Chujo-hime-seigan-zakura” tree, which is said to be 1,250 years old.  Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata took the seeds to the ISS in November 2008, and they orbited the Earth 4,100 times before coming home. 

NOBODY WANTS to get the IRS notice in the mail that they’re being audited, heaven forbid. But when it comes to gardens, Rodney Eason believes that the occasional audit is a very positive process, and encourages us to perform one on our own landscape.