Search - Articles

, 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

their metabolism until next spring. Unfortunately, in the process of dying off the workers make one last attempt to satisfy their sweet tooth, and this is why they start paying close attention to cream teas and iced buns. It's no use me telling you to stop waving

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

Brambles are the unsung heroes of the fruit garden.A couple of weeks ago I was spring cleaning my store cupboard when I found a stray jar of blackberry jam trapped behind the mountain of marmalade. The pleasure I got when we opened it for breakfast

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

on. Then today I found the large bone, obviously the remains of someone's Sunday roast, dumped under the bench up there. Squatters?Fox sightings have been down this last couple of years, and even the plaintive screaming in early spring seems to have

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

temperatures lead to flower drop, resulting in no crop at all. This is a particular problem for growers in the north, where spring takes longer to kick in and autumn is then only around the corner.I've only grown aubergines once before, and that was in a

called Panicum 'Rehbraun', planted with Cosmos 'Dazzler' and the fabulous Tithonia rotundifolia (pictured, top) that are bushy and wonderful, but I completely forgot to plant anything for spring: no tulips, no alliums, no nothing. As a result I had

products at many garden centres. Christmas takes centre stage as baubles and singing Santas replace spring-flowering bulbs, and once again I'll be left searching in vain for gardening inspiration.Now, I'm not saying that all these fabulous marketing