End of April: Some Warmth at Last!

For years I’ve heard the same refrain: You can’t have a good-looking garden that is also eco-friendly. It seems that many folks think native plants are too wild looking and that taking a lighter approach to garden cleanup or care will lead to a messy, unkempt landscape. I argue that there are small steps everyone can take to encourage greater biodiversity in their space, all while keeping it attractive.

Drought-tolerant, laden with nectar, evergreen, long-flowering, and so pungent that it fills the garden with scent, lavender is deservedly popular. The late garden designer Rosemary Verey said, «You can never have too much of it in your garden». In its preferred conditions, of well-drained soil that is baked by the sun, it is easy to grow.

Want to turn your yard into a bee haven? Our Bee Friendly Plants guide will show you the Best Plants that Attract Bees so you can enjoy a blooming garden full of healthy foliage.

Want to show a little love to your local bees with an easy-care lawn? You don’t have to keep bees to create an environment that helps them thrive. Bee lawns are a great way to improve the look and care of your yard while also helping bees.

Having cut spent flowering stems from all the hellebores over the weekend, amassing a large trugful of them, rather than compost them all I decided to use several stems in today’s vase. Not only was it the last opportunity this year to use hellebores in a vase, but this time I could also be sure, with seedpods well-swollen, that the stems will remain upstanding, unlike vases when the blooms were fresher. I wish I could tell you what colour the original blooms were, but I can’t; now, they are a very pale green with dark speckled centres, giving them a kind of vintage appearance.

The exterior facade of your home is what truly makes its first impression. Homes are often set in the same cookie-cutter designs and palettes, so it’s easy to ignore the exterior and jump straight to the inner walls of your abode.

As the warm weather season approaches, we asked professional gardeners and landscapers to weigh in with their insights regarding the hottest landscaping looks of the year. From creating shade gardens to mixing in darker foliage, these trends will elevate your outdoor space.

It's no secret that lighting can make or break a room, and one of our favorite ambient lighting options is wall sconces, especially for bedrooms—any bedroom with a bed flanked by two beautiful wall lights is instantly elevated from drab to fab.

Collaborative post

Julie Soefer

Averting my eyes from the tulips which were shouting “Pick me! Pick me!” as I walked past, I headed towards the bottom end of the garden to pick some of the marauding Spanish bluebells that have sneaked their way in under/over/round the fence. The impact of bluebells in the garden has really registered in recent days, with the uninvited guests and the more local residents joining forces to provide by far and away the biggest splash of blue in the garden out of all the seasons. There may be little patches of blue from spring bulbs and isolated spots in the summer months, but bluebell season is something else and the splashes will only get larger and more widespread as time goes on, with even the English bluebells popping up in other parts of the garden than the woodland. By picking the Spanish bluebells, however, I can at least try and restrict their desire for dominance!

Stunning florals are synonymous with springtime, and chances are, every social channel you're scrolling through is bursting with beautiful blooms.