the best hydrangeas aren’t blue

A cherry plum, sweet, thin-skinned and very prolific (you’ll also find it sold under ‘Red Grape Sugar Plum’). It was in the top three of our recent taste test and everyone liked it for its strong tomato flavour that’s sweet but not overly so, and its firm not mushy texture. It has a slight acidity running through it which all sweet tomatoes need. It ripens quite late compared to ‘Sungold’ and produces for a long period of time. It’s lovely in a mixed salad with the larger varieties. 

With seeds to sow and plants to care for, why not garden in comfort and treat your feet to a pair of gardening shoes? Practical and easy to slip on and off, they’re ideal for wearing through the spring, summer and early autumn and are best left by the back door so you can slip them on whenever you need to nip outside. Most are lightweight and made from waterproof materials so they’ll not only keep your feet dry but are durable and easy to clean.

Like honeybees, bumblebees visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar to take back to their colonies to feed the developing brood.

It’s well known that the housing market is so competitive right now, but prospective home buyers aren’t the only ones hurting—renters are, too. According to personal finance website WalletHub, inflation has impacted rental prices, and 2022 saw the second-highest price growth in decades with a 6.2% year-over-year increase. 

Used for turning, driving and removing screws, a screwdriver is fundamental to most DIYtasks. A screwdriver is a length of shaped metal designed to fit into a specific screw size and shape, attached to a long shank and handle. However, it’s not quite as simple as it may seem. 

Tips for Best Foxgloves

With National Book Lovers Day approaching on Wednesday, 9 August, what better time for avid gardeners to dip their noses into a gardening book for all the inspiration and practical advice for their green spaces?

We aren’t all blessed with acres and acres of land. Most of us have to make do with a smal

Hydrangeas, with their extravagant blooms, are a quintessential part of any garden. However, coaxing the best performance from these plants requires more than just basic gardening skills. This guide will share some secret Master Gardener’s Tricks to Grow the Successful Hydrangeas!

No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

With all those mums and pumpkins at garden centers and farmers markets, how can we select the best and make them last?

E. palustris, as its species name reveals, is a marsh-type plant, so wet and heavy soils are no problem for it (though it doesn’t seem to require them). Most spurges are finicky about such conditions. Not this one. It gets to between 2 and 3 feet tall and at least as wide.I grow seven or eight other Euphorbias, including the basic polychroma, its newer, red-foliage variant called ‘Bonfire,’ and the fiery-colored one called E. griffithii ‘Dixter’ [above]. In California, mail-order Digging Dog Nursery has a good list of spurges, but not palustris. I swore I got my most recent generation of plants at Forestfarm, but I don’t see it in their current list. Hmmm….how about Annie’s Annuals?The hardest thing about growing spurges is cutting them back,