Plants for a purpose: Late summer colour

David Tsay

As Digital Content Editor Christine Alexander explains, pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystem and we should all be doing our part to support their populations:

String of Watermelon, also popular as String of Melons or Senecio herreianus, is a unique and visually stunning trailing succulent that can be great for small spaces!

Plants play a positive role in promoting a healthy day to day life by stimulating the five human senses – Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch. Here are some awesome Sensory Houseplants for a Stimulating Indoor Garden that you can grow with ease to add an appeal to your rooms and enrich the life experience.

Native to South Africa, Streptocarpus – or Cape primrose – are lovely house plants that are grown for their fresh green leaves and pretty, primrose-like flowers in the UK. The flowers come in a wide range of colours, from white to pink, blues and purples, lemon yellow and red, and they are often bi-coloured. They bloom from spring though to autumn, offering a long-lasting display. Plants in the ‘Crystal’ series flower for even longer, and may even flower all year.

The tropical rain forests of South America hold a treasure when it comes to plants that are beautiful, exotic, and can make for great houseplants. Have a look at the most amazing South American Indoor Plants you can grow!

A stroll through a boutique garden store might lead you to believe that filling a garden with happy, healthy plants is only for the well-heeled. But those very plants that have soaring price tags in the store might be yours for free if you are willing to be a little creative. If you are wondering how to get free plants, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for five tried-and-true paths that lead you to free garden plants.

Requiring less watering and weeding than any other type of garden, a gravel garden is ideal for anyone with a busy lifestyle. Comprising freely draining soil covered in gravel, through which suitable plants grow, the only effort required is in its creation; after that, this contemporary form of garden largely looks after itself.

A pothos at Patch Plants

In times of this pandemic, it is imperative that you take good care of your health, especially the respiratory system. Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (which are 10 times higher indoors than outdoors), Particulate Matter, Polluting Gases like Nitrogen Oxide andRadon, and Contaminants like Asbestos are commonly found inside homes.

Pencil cactus plants look like they would be fussy, but they’re actually very easy to grow and care for.

Are eroding shorelines interrupting your picturesque pond view? Shoreline erosion can be a significant pond maintenance issue because it contributes to infill of ponds, water quality issues, and can be pretty unattractive, too. A major cause of shoreline erosion is one that might surprise you: mowed turfgrass along the shoreline. Mowed turfgrass on banks lacks the deep root system or tolerance to moist soil conditions needed to withstand fluctuating water levels and wave action in ponds. The result means undercutting, erosion, and slumping banks creating a hazard along your waterfront.