Category: General gardening

Night-scented plants

summer evenings in the garen
Enjoy warm summer evenings in the garden filled with glorious scent
Image source: Randy Fath

On balmy summer evenings, there’s nothing better than a night-scented plant to perfume the warm, still air. The flowers are usually pale so they remain visible at dusk, making them particularly valuable for those who are away from their gardens during the day.

The colour and fragrance of evening-scented flowers attract nocturnal pollinators which, in turn, attract bats. Wonderful for wildlife, and diverse in size and form, evening-scented plants suit a range of gardening styles and budgets. They can be grown in a small pot to sit on an outdoor table or doorstep, or used to fragrance the grandest of terraces.

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Winter scented shrubs

yellow spidery flowers on a deciduous bow
Grow Witch Hazel to enjoy unusual flowers with an intoxicating scent
Image Source: Shutterstock

Scented winter plants will lift your spirits when the long, warm days of summer are a distant memory, with the delicious scent of their fragrant flowers offering a to to the darker days.

Many winter-flowering shrubs are perfume powerhouses, and their fragrances can be enjoyed from all around the garden. Their blooms have such heady scents to attract pollinators, which is no mean feat, given that there are relatively few pollinators around in winter. It works, though! On a sunny day, the sight of early emerging bees homing in on scented flowers is a wonderful sight.
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Top Tips for Extending Garden Colour into Autumn.

summer border
©Shutterstock – Take stock of borders now to begin planning for autumn colour.

August is a great time to take stock of your borders and containers. Right now, they should be in full swing; a riot of colour! But in a couple of months they will begin to fade and so it’s worth planning ahead now. Make sure that you have some plants waiting in the wings if you want to keep your display looking fresh and colourful.  

Here are some top tips for extending your display well into autumn.

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Join the Big Butterfly Count 2020

The Big Butterfly Count

Peacock Butterflies
©Van Meuwen – Peacock Butterflies are a common sight in UK gardens.

Have you spotted any butterflies lately? If your garden is a haven for them then why not take part in the Big Butterfly Count? This annual event runs from Friday 17 July and Sunday 9 August this year, so you still have plenty of time to get involved.

It’s a simple but effective way of testing the state of the UK’s butterfly populations. People up and down the UK will be stepping outside for 15 minutes with a cuppa and an identification sheet, downloaded from Butterfly Conservation’s website https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/ .  Choose a sunny spot to sit and record how many of each different species you can spot in your garden.
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Taking notes in the garden

hat and books on garden table
Add a notebook to your garden toolkit for more effective planning
Image source: Shutterstock

Ask any gardener what’s on their list of must-have tools and chances are they’d say a trowel, fork and secateurs. Good gloves and stout boots also often get a mention but there’s something else I’d add to the gardening essentials – a notebook.

Keep a journal or notes on your garden. It’s one of the best ways to plan ahead and remember exactly what you’ve done.

Combine it with a camera and you can keep track of all those gardening jobs and flashes of inspiration. This helps you improve your plot every season and keep a detailed history of its development.
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