Category: General gardening

How to choose and plant roses

pink and red rose bushes
A quintessential English garden wouldn’t be complete without roses
Image source: Viktoria Kuzemnko

For summer spectacle and scent it’s hard to beat the rose, and few gardeners feel their plot is complete without at least one.

The colour range is vast and with everything from rampant ramblers to dainty patio roses, there’s something to suit every size of garden.

While they may be the stars of summer, between November and March is the best time to plant. Bare root roses are not only cheaper than potted plants, they also establish more easily. Continue reading “How to choose and plant roses”

What to grow in the winter garden

red and orange bushes dogwood
Enjoy colour in the garden year round with Cornus.
Image source: Van Meuwen

More than any other season, it’s winter that sorts true gardeners from mere dabblers. Putting on a good show when flowers are plentiful is easy, while the stripped back nature of winter soon exposes any weakness in design.
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Gardening for butterflies

red admiral on echinacea
Red admiral butterfly feeding from a coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).
Image source: Gary L. Brewer

There’s a sunny corner of my garden where creeping thyme grows in a gravel path. It may be barely 8cm tall, but still provides a valuable oasis of nectar amongst acres of fields where few flowers grow. This tiny butterfly magnet demonstrates that even paths, containers, and window boxes planted with nectar-rich flowers can play a vital role in supporting butterflies, by providing an essential pit stop for them to refuel as they travel across fields, towns or cities.

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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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Why I love compost

cupped hands holding compost
Homemade compost is the best way to enrich your soil.
Image source: Pixabay

Home-made compost is a winner on so many levels; little wonder few serious gardeners would be without a heap. The perfect way to get the best out of your plants by improving the soil, compost makes use of otherwise waste material and it’s cheap to get started. The best news? It’s really easy to make – here’s how…

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