The Ins and Outs of a Sustainable Greenhouse

Sometimes, you see a style that’s so over the top, with so many seemingly disconnected designs, that it's a miracle everything flows together so seamlessly. Case in point: the no-holds-barred look of British pop decor. The style combines the best of today’s trending aesthetics with a healthy dose of the posh past—and like all maximalist styles, it's all about the layers.

Boglarka Zilla Gulyas, University of Sheffield and Jill Edmondson, University of Sheffield

Cindy Strickland has shared on the GPOD before (Gardening for a Friend), and today she’s taking us along to visit a beautiful English garden.

Here are key autumn garden tips plus 7 top suggestions of plants to plant now.

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.

Indoor plants will instantly add some green to your living space, bringing the outside in and touching base with nature. And when it comes to plant pots to keep them in, there are plenty to choose from. 

Sowing seeds doesn’t need to be a tricky business. Whether you are planting vegetable seeds such as chillies and tomatoes, or colourful sweet pea flowers or cornflowers, a dibber will help you out.

With sloping hills that form a dramatic escarpment as they slip into the plain of the River Severn, the Cotswolds, spanning Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, epitomise rural charm. Rivers like the Windrush flow swiftly through pretty villages, gigantic yews fill the yards of churches built in the Middle Ages, and scattered across it are lovely gardens, both grand and modest, all of them embellished with beautiful flowers.

Whilst we huddle with cups of hot chocolate, wrapped in layers of wool, gearing ourselves up to make those first boot tracks in crisp frost, our wintry gardens are already being enjoyed by the birds. From the cunning Treecreeper to the bolshy Robin, the RSPB help us identify who will be paying your garden a visit in the cold season.

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.

Nerine ‘Sparkle’ is a hybrid derived from the more tender N. sarniensis, the original Guernsey Lily. Ideal for growing in a conservatory or glasshouse, the sarniensis hybrids have a wider colour range than the hardier species, and typically their flowers appear before their leaves, on a tall, elegant steam.

The impressive topiary-framed Italianate formal gardens at Mapperton