Buying the right lawnmower

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The award-winning Cobra MX3440V is a standout mower with a powerful yet lightweight design. Offering five cutting heights between 25mm and 75mm, a 35ltr capacity grass bag and foldable handles for storage, this versatile machine is perfect for small to medium sized gardens and can be used throughout all the seasons.

Increasingly popular with UK gardeners, robotic lawn mowers are a welcome, hands-free alternative to traditional petrol and electric lawn mowers. Because a robotic lawn mower is fully automatic, it can be a brilliant option for gardeners who have mobility concerns, are away from home a lot, or simply find mowing a chore. Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries, most mowers are guided by a boundary cable laid around the edge of the lawn, which helps the robotic lawn mower identify where to mow and to avoid flower beds, trees and other obstacles.

Hedges are a classic garden feature. They’re a beautiful way to mark a boundary that avoids the blandness of garden fences and these living walls can dampen noise pollution, soak up groundwater, and provide a windbreak. Hedgerows are also a vital habitat for British wildlife, providing both food and shelter, so regular maintenance is an ecological as well as aesthetic necessity. Hand shears are a simple way to trim but if you have a lot of hedges or mobility issues, powered trimmers make the job much easier and quicker.

James Lloyd-Jones photographed at his company’s Innovation Centre in Bristol, where different crops and new technology are trialled

Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants co-founder Rosy Hardy on one of the electric buggies used at the Hampshire nursery

Better Homes & Gardens

Gardening has long been a cherished pastime, providing joy and satisfaction to those who engage with it. However, the relationship between individuals and their gardens has deepened significantly in recent times. Amid the rise of a greener lifestyle and a growing awareness of our connection to the environment, the hobby of gardening is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. But it’s not just about beautifying outdoor spaces or growing one’s own produce; gardening has emerged as a significant contributor to mental health and well-being. A fascinating revelation from Mind, a leading mental health charity based in the UK, has highlighted this fact. They found that since the start of the pandemic, over seven million people have experienced the mental health benefits of gardening for the first time.

If you ask people what plant they would take into space (which I do, quite a bit), a significant number of them answer potatoes, because they can’t imagine a life without French fries (chips, if you’re British). The only problem with that is that, so far, no one has worked out how to make fries in space. The International Space Station doesn’t have a deep fat fryer, and you can imagine the health & safety nightmare that would be in microgravity. In The Martian, Mark Watney has to make do with a microwave, and rues the day he runs out of ketchup.

Freezing peas is easy, and a great way to keep them on hand for adding to your favorite recipes all year round.

Where the Wild Things Grow Given the right conditions, there aren’t many gardeners who wouldn’t love to establish a wildflower meadow somewhere in their garden, but the reality is that starting from scratch can be a lengthy and tricky process. Read about it in one of the many books or features written on the topic – and you may well decide that it is all far too much trouble.

The New Urban Green ‘The New Urban Green’ is a celebration of the tucked away, the overlooked and the greened-up edges of our urban areas captured over 10 years by the photographer Jane Sebire and writer Caroline Beck. Gardens within prisons; asylum seekers growing home tastes from abroad on northern allotments; canals transformed into public parks; housing estates becoming English meadows – small, extraordinary delights in ordinary places cared for by visionaries, enthusiasts and the simply curious.