Search - Articles

foolish as to think that spring is here - we are more than likely to get whacked by frost or snow before then - but at least it is showing willing.One of the best things about this time of year is scent. Flowers are pretty rare but there are a few plants

around the place before mulching. The next few weeks require patience; days of glorious waiting as, one after another, plants push their way to the surface and the spring slowly arrives.

of my great pleasures is weeding while listening to my iPod. So easy to use and no danger of ruining it by squishing soil into the springs or weeds into the woofers. Sometimes I have random music so it can easily flit from Rachmaninov to Radiohead, Gogol

, it's the apples and pears that have been the subject of my attentions. As we know, apple trees blossom picturesquely in spring. These flowers then develop into small fruits and then, in June, the tree shrugs and loses a fair few of these (this

.But this is no longer enough. Next year I want cornflowers (a pretty easy option: direct sow where you need them in spring) in blue and purple; I yearn for chirpy orange calendulas; I pine for the delicate pink Nicotiana mutabilis and, more than anything, I want

Garden Media Guild Awards) but above all he is an enthusiast.He follows in the footsteps of not only recent figures (the late Geoff Hamilton springs to mind) but of many of the great plant hunters. Have you ever grown Viburnum farreri? You should

, forgotten.Give them a decent fertile soil and they will never disappoint. They should be divided every few years in early spring.By the way, Future Gardens starts this week. It is the successor to the late, lamented Westonbirt Festival of the Garden

a metal spring rake - except raking dead thatch out of evergreen grasses, like Stipa gigantea.5. A Rice Sickle, which has a really vicious cutting edge that's ideal for cutting back tall grasses. Mind your fingers.And the least useful?An ancient

made gardens at all three major shows last year) and Paul Hervey-Brookes (for Bradstone). Paul won last year's Chris Beardshaw Scholarship at the Malvern Spring Show.I am judging small gardens on Monday and will be trundling across your television

My, we gardeners have been busy over the past few weeks. First the delightful Malvern Spring Show, then the pomp and circumstance that is the Chelsea Flower Show. Last week was the bustle of Gardeners World Live and before we know it we