A Goldfinch perching on teasel
17.08.2024 - 21:30 / houseandgarden.co.uk / Hazel Sillver
Flanking our waterways in great mops of silver green, the willow is the most poetic and mysterious of trees. In many cultures – including ancient Egypt and ancient Greece – it was associated with immortality, death, and the underworld; old English folklore states that if you sit beside a willow and shed tears, the tree will cry with you. In China, where the weeping willow hails from, it represents strength and resilience, reflecting the instruction in the Tao Te Ching to have a flexible attitude: 'A tree that won't bend, breaks easily in storms.' Being pliant and strong, willow is used for weaving, and its light weight and hardness make it the best wood for cricket bats.
If your garden soil is moist, willows are must-have plants that keep you company all year. There is a wide range of sizes and forms that offer interest in different seasons, having ornamental winter bark, shimmering silver leaves in summer, or fluffy catkins that hum with hungry bees early in the year when nectar is thin on the ground.
At the word willow, most of us think of the arching giants that pour over lakes and rivers and resemble great heads of green hair when their long, slender branches sway on the breeze. If you have a large garden with water in it, plant graceful Salix babylonica (weeping willow) or Salix x sepulcralis var. chrysocoma (golden weeping willow). There are compact weeping willows for sale – which are often sold as standards – but they can look a bit twee.
Some willows grow in weird and wonderful contorted shapes that look great in winter. S. x sepulcralis 'Erythroflexuosa' is one of the best for small to medium gardens; in full sun, its bare curly stems takes on fox-red and golden tints.
The yellow catkins of our native goat willow
A Goldfinch perching on teasel
Nothing spoils “blissfully lost in the garden” feels like rodents! Be it your fresh lettuce, juicy strawberries, or even cardboard boxes and electrical wires—rats spare none! They are easily the scourge of all your prized garden staples, but we show you how to keep a rat-free garden without hurting them as much as possible!
How to Grow and Care for Weigela Shrubs Weigela spp.
Bedding plants, such as petunias, pelargoniums, pansies and nicotiana, are easy to grow and care for. They look good grown in hanging baskets and pots, and also work in borders, either used to fill gaps or grown together for a colourful display.
Header image: Cilantro seedlings grown in 100% recycled glass material. Image credit: Andrea Quezada
There is no way to sugarcoat the challenges many of us in the Mid-Atlantic region have faced this summer. The inconsistency of rainfall and the extreme high temperatures have greatly impacted our efforts to garden successfully. Even with valiant efforts to apply supplemental irrigation, I have witnessed a wide range of plant material showing signs of drought stress that I have rarely witnessed in my 15-plus years of gardening in this region. To say it is cause for concern would be an understatement. As a result, in the last few months I have been repeatedly asked how we can prepare our beloved gardens to reduce heat and moisture stress for future growing seasons. One answer to this conundrum is to add organic matter to the soil in the form of compost.
One of the secrets to producing big, bushy basil plants is trimming. Many gardeners are shy about harvesting from their herbs and don’t want to cut them back in case it damages the plants or reduces yield. I’m the opposite, constantly trimming herbs like basil to use fresh, or preserve by drying or freezing. Not only does it promote bushier growth it also increases stem and leaf production. Are you ready to learn how to trim your basil plants for maximum yield? When it comes to pruning basil, it doesn’t matter if you’re growing basil in containers or garden beds. It doesn’t matter if you’
How to Grow and Care for Lupines Lupinus spp.
A conversation with Sarah Price about how she designs her planting schemes is fascinating. She works in an unfettered way, with no specific planting plans but an intuitive sense of the plants that will work well together to form the nature-inspired compositions she is known for. Her gardens are like exquisite paintings, comprising layers of detail with a gentle succession of plants that provide interest for most of the year. This summer combination comes from Sarah’s own garden on the edge of Abergavenny. Here, she has created different areas and habitats, including a dry garden in the old walled kitchen garden.
Sustainability is at the forefront of most parts of our lives these days, from how to be less wasteful with our food shopping to considering the materials we use in our homes. Gardening is no different, and it's as important to think about the environment there as it is in any other aspect of our lives. In fact, you could argue it's the most important as a healthy, sustainable garden will support the ecosystem and wildlife that should be thriving there. To set you off on the right path, Clare Foster sets out the seven things to consider in order to cultivate a sustainable garden.
Blooming along the Nile, this sacred flower was a potent symbol among ancient Egyptian royalty and deities. Even found in the famed tomb of King Tutankhamun, it is treasured for its psychoactive blue blooms. Let’s uncover the meaning of the intriguing blue lotus flower!
Heucheras are shade-loving plants, native to the woodlands of North America. Grown for their foliage, their leaves come in a huge range of colours from red, purple, vivid green and even silver, and they bear attractive flowers in summer, too. Heucheras make excellent ground cover plants, and work well in winter pot displays. Members of thesaxifrage family, heucheras are also known as coral bells and alumroot.