Best Support Act

Are you tired of a lackluster garden with only a few blooms here and there? Well, it’s time to bring some buzz to your backyard with these Bee Balm Companion Plants! These vibrant and fragrant beauties not only attract pollinators but also complement each other in color, height, and texture, creating a visually stunning display.

Why is My Cactus Turning Yellow – you may have asked this to yourself if you have them in your plant collection. Cacti are known for their resilience, but sometimes they can turn pale, indicating that something is wrong. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your cactus may be turning yellow and provide solutions to help your plant recover.

With gorgeous blooms in festive hues, Christmas cactus makes a popular holiday gift. The exotic-looking flowers open just in time for the holidays and provide weeks of color. Christmas cacti are long-lived plants, blooming year after year in shades of red, purple, peach, and white. Learn how to care for a Christmas cactus so you can enjoy these holiday beauties for years to come.

Bamboo plant supports are the perfect supports for tall and vining vegetables like tomatoes, pole beans, and cucumbers. They’re strong and sturdy, so they serve a practical purpose, but they’re also extremely ornamental and add a natural element to the garden. Plus, there are many types of bamboo structures for every sized space, including containers. In this article, we’re going to share some of our favorite bamboo staking and trellising products, offer advice on when and how to use them, and the best plants to pair with these attractive structures.

Even the most insect-wary gardeners have a special place in their hearts for butterflies. They bring a touch of whimsy and serendipity to our yards, flitting along like fairies and pollinating flowers. Unfortunately, after decades of habitat loss and the decline in biodiversity across the United States, gardening for butterflies has taken on a dire tone. The good news is that gardeners like us can help save them. It all starts with feeding their caterpillars, and for that you need butterfly host plants.

Cacti are always going to be in trend, thanks to their ease of growing nature, plus the awesome range of color, size, and shapes they come in. But wait, if you thought that cacti are just green and thorny, then you are wrong! There are many amazing flowering cactus plants that can throw strong competition to your other flowering shrubs and plants!

More than 100 farmer, rancher, consumer and labor organizations are pleading with the US House Committee on Appropriations to reconsider allowing the USDA to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act).

I try to support plants with natural materials whenever possible,  whether its runner beans, sweet peas or border perennials.  I’ve had lots of fun creating a woven trellis for my sweet peas with the cobnut ( a type of hazel) prunings that I collected last week.  It’s something I’ve never done before, but I was dealing with a quite narrow space where there wasn’t room for the usual  wigwams and I’m rather pleased with the result which is both attractive and surprisingly sturdy.  If you can’t lay your hands on coppiced hazel, I have noticed that jute netting is available – not the same, but more discreet than plastic and it can be composted at the end of the season. Hen & Hamm

There’s still time to get plant supports in place, before everything gets too large, develops a mind of its own and heads off in directions that may suit it – but doesn’t add to the beauty of the garden. With this is mind, I recently attended a Staking & Supports course given by Sarah Raven, whose garden at Perch Hill could not be bettered when it comes to plant supports, the majority of which are made from natural materials. Coppiced chestnut, willow, hazel and silver birch are all used to create sturdy and decorative frameworks to keep plants upright or support them as they climb. Anyone planning to plant a cutting garden would find the course invaluable – and I now know how I can do it better next year. The most important thing I learnt is that my bundles of coppiced silver birch need to be taller if I am going to create the tall, elegant structures that we made at Perch Hill, rather than the short, dumpy ones that I’ve managed at home. I get my silver birch from the man who supplies our logs and up until now he has cut them to the length that will fit in the car – I will ask for them to be delivered in future. According to Sarah, the best suppliers provide the materials to build Point-to-Point hurdles, but you need to be living a very rural life to have them nearby. My coppiced silver birch is too

Cactus is a low-maintenance plant but requires occasional fertilization as it helps in restoring nutrients it absorbs from the soil. However, using the correct fertilizer at the right time is the key here to boost healthy growth, flowering, and bright color. Let’s have a look at theBest Fertilizer For Cactus!

More About Hartley Hartley have been making greenhouses for almost as long as the Chelsea Flower Show has been going. That’s a 100 years in case you hadn’t heard. Here’s one of their ads from the RHS Jour

It’s the perfect time to give the newly-emerging clematis some twiggy supports, allowing them to climb and scramble, rather the sprawl and collapse. I love the decorative nature of my various metal plant supports (they add structure to the winter garden) but I find that they are not sufficient on their own, even with companion roses, to support clematis so I add very twiggy silver birch branches to the central area and find this works a treat.