Search - Articles

. Also, I recommend warming areas of your plot with cloches or polythene for a few days before sowing - it makes an amazing difference to germination.Most of the plants in my garden will benefit from a good feed during spring. Not just young plants

, so they won’t get squashed any more, and give them a good feed. The feed should be reapplied every few weeks, while the leaves are still green. Regular feeding helps the bulbs to build up a store of nutrients for next year, so they’re far more likely

with a foliar feed when the blooms have faded.iii) Mark the worst affected clumps with a short cane (ready to be divided and replanted in the autumn).This regime won't prevent delivery men driving (unwittingly) over inconspicuous plants, before and after

of damage. They tend to feed on exposed areas of the foliage, so it's not too difficult to spot and remove them before they've decimated the plants.Of course, you may not want to remove them from your prized plants. Some gardeners choose to leave them be

I'm like pretty well anyone else I suppose, a bargain is always welcome. Now, whenever I stop to think just how much effort has gone in to the raising, nurturing and production of plants for sale in nurseries and garden centres, I cannot help

The soil here is rock solid. Fortunately, I planted the last of the garlic last week, before temperatures plummeted. Now, I'd need to use an ice axe, rather than a fork if I wanted to plant anything.I answered the door recently to a courier, who

injected by the feeding aphids.It seemed that my efforts at an early sowing of beans were doomed, but eventually the plants sprang into life. They were admittedly rather lax, after their ‘soft life’ in the greenhouse, but that didn’t adversely affect

I always get a real thrill when I find the telltale marks of the leafcutter bee on the leaves of my roses and wisteria. Sometimes I catch them in action, cutting out a circle of leaf, or flying around carrying it. It doesn't bother me to find plants

Gardeners are well known for loving beautiful things, but it would have made anyone smile to see the sight of four garden experts pouring over a 'beautiful plant' the other evening. We were recording Gardeners' Question Time in Weymouth and, having

bouts of windy weather, they haven't required any support (larger varieties do sometimes need some help, though) and they've needed very little feeding. I just couldn't imagine being without ornamental alliums. And their close relatives garlic, onion