How to Test Soil in the Home Garden

A garden with a restrained planting palette can be so exciting and atmospheric. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the white garden. The limitations of choosing plants of a single colour means you can focus your attention; in fact there are so many plants out there that if you don’t have some sort of guiding principles when you set about designing your garden, you will soon be lost and overwhelmed with options.

The BC Home + Garden Show is back in full bloom with expert advice on building, gardening and whipping up tasty dishes in the kitchen. Also on hand will be vendors showcasing renovation products and the latest innovations.

It’s time to plan this year’s garden, but knowing how many of each vegetable to plant can be tricky. Unfortunately, overplanting is a common and costly mistake that even experienced gardeners make. When you can’t sell, give away, or donate unwanted produce, it often ends up in the trash or on the compost pile.

For those of us who love roses, they are the indisputable queens of the garden, and we would never be without their beautiful flowers and their scent, which hangs on the air in summer. Rose haters are perplexed by our unwavering devotion and complain of the rose's susceptibility to sickness; this is fair, since many roses can be affected by fungal diseases, including the rather medieval-sounding black spot, which marks leaves with dark blotches. Thankfully, the worst outbreaks of rose sickness can be prevented with clever cultivar selection, planting, and maintenance, so that your summer profusion of roses is nothing but a joy.  

We all know what it’s like to come home from the grocery store and dig into the strawberries only to find them too bland, too tart, or too far gone.And when we get a nice, sweet, juicy batch we inhale them within a

Weeds – those opportunistic, unwelcome plants that can effortlessly outcompete your edibles and ornamentals.If only there were an easy way to keep them at bay!Wel

Gardeners everywhere battle weeds throughout the growing season. But I’m here to offer some unconventional advice.I’m going to encourage you to grow them, or at lea

I do like a productive garden, especially when it has glasshouses and potting sheds. Those at Petworth are an object lesson in tidy order. The Vegetable Garden has been revamped so that it is decorative as well as productive – and a lot easier to look after in these days when it is no longer necessary to grow food for a household of hundreds.   This perfect corner

Why not see a few more modern gardens from some of the other shows.

Here’s a general rule of thumb in the gardening world:Most plants need around 1 inch of water every week

Empathy in the Flower Garden I’ve sown a mini meadow under the apple and apricot trees using the Empathy mini meadow with beneficial micorrhiza (£5.99) from Root Grow. They are the company that produce micorrhiza for use when planting. Using micorrhiza helps plants establish quickly.

Every gardener out there can benefit from having floating row covers on hand. They’re lightweight, easy to store, and inexpensive. And their uses go well beyond frost protection.Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t up for building a mini h