I first learned the fundamentals of kitchen gardening from my mother, who learned it from her father, a passing-on of traditional skills repeated down through countless generations.
25.09.2023 - 15:19 / theenglishgarden.co.uk / The English Garden
Spring is when wildlife reawakens in our countryside, parks and gardens. Despite the cold chill still in the air, signs of spring will be starting to appear and our garden birds will become more recognisable during the breeding season. From the noisy Willow Warbler to the colourful Siskin, the RSPB help us identify what birds will be paying a visit to your garden this spring.
Bramblings are winter visitors to the UK, having flown south and west to escape the chill in Russia and Scandinavia. They’re often seen among flocks of their close relatives, chaffinches. They have a similar appearance, but instead of the smart blue grey and pink of his chaffinch counterpart, the male brambling has beautiful black, orange and white feathers. The female also has an orange breast. Right now they won’t be in their bright breeding colours but still look fantastic. An easy way to tell them apart from chaffinches is their white rump, which you’ll see when they take flight.
A favourite food of these jetsetting finches is beechmast, the seeds from beech trees. The numbers of birds we see here in winter will depend on how much of this beech bounty is around closer to home. In some years we might see tens of thousands arriving to feast in our woods and farmland. In fact, one of the biggest flocks of birds ever recorded was of bramblings. In the winter of 1951-1952, approximately 70 million of them descended on the forests of Switzerland.
With a colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green feathers the blue tit is easy to recognise all year round and is one of our most attractive garden visitors. At this time of year some people get in touch with us to say they have seen a blue tit tapping on their window. From inside the house it can seem
I first learned the fundamentals of kitchen gardening from my mother, who learned it from her father, a passing-on of traditional skills repeated down through countless generations.
Multiseason Garden Bed with Hesse Cotoneaster Get fall garden interest that lasts into winter with this easy-care plant combination featuring a Hesse cotoneaster shrub. Fall into winter with multiseason plants
Vote now, and pick the garden you’d like to win this year’s People’s Choice award for the Gardens of the Year Competition 2023, sponsored by Yeo Valley. Take a look at this year’s finalists, and vote for your favourite below. Voting closes at noon on Monday 6 November.
While bird feeders are common in Britain’s gardens, bird baths are less so. Bird baths are a brilliant way of providing birds with a regular supply of clean water for both drinking and bathing. Bird baths become even more essential in the colder months when natural sources may be frozen or in the height of summer when water can be hard to come by.
It’s always a pleasure to speak with our neighbors in Canada, and it’s clear the community garden movement there is alive and thriving. Judy Stafford and Naomi Kulhawy are two of Kin Park Community Garden’s biggest supporters, with Judy as executive director and Naomi as the farm director.
Did you know that some trees (such as alder, poplar, willow, ash and the dawn redwood) can “hold their breath” when the ground in which they grow is flooded? Or that others, such as the silver lime (Tilia tomentosa), have evolved ingenious ways of conserving their water supply when confronted with extreme heat and drought, including covering their leaves with a layer of fine hairs to keep them cool in sunny weather?
Herefordshire forms part of the Marches, the ancient border territories straddling England and Wales. To the east lie the majestic Malvern Hills, and winding through the centre is the great River Wye, the valley of which is burnished with colour in October and November.
Boglarka Zilla Gulyas, University of Sheffield and Jill Edmondson, University of Sheffield
Here are key autumn garden tips plus 7 top suggestions of plants to plant now.
Denmark continues to rank as one of the happiest nations on earth. If you want what they have, it’s time to learn about hygge garden ideas. Hygge is a concept that seems to escape Americans with our hustle and bustle and “go get ‘em” attitude, but it seems we could learn a thing or two from our Danish friends. They celebrate the concept of hygge outdoors or inside. A hygge outdoor space may include a hygge patio and hygge backyard, but don’t misconstrue the idea behind hygge — it belongs with you wherever you go. Keep reading to learn about hygge and how you can incorporate it into your lifestyle.
It was in The Pickwick Papers that Dickens wrote the often quoted line: “Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent – apples, cherries, hops, and women.” The county is still referred to as the Garden of England, even though the amount of fruit traditionally farmed there has declined over the decades. Perhaps it’s still used so widely because some of the country’s most celebrated properties and gardens are to be found in Kent.
One of the most picturesque parts of England, the Yorkshire Dales have a reputation for bearing their own, distinctive character. Lying north-west of York, the region is defined by the Yorkshire Dales National Park, established in 1954. This striking landscape is overseen by three peaks, Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside. In summer, its steep-sided glacial valleys are filled with wildflower meadows, notably at Muker, a small village popular with hill walkers. Valleys are the defining feature here, and the term dale stems from the Old English for valley, but it is also similar to the Nordic term, dal. The Norsemen controlled much of this region in the 10th century, and their footprint lingers in local dialect: ‘beck’, from bekkr, meaning stream, and ‘fell’, from fjall, meaning hill, are just two examples.