Whether you’re an amateur or professional, there’s always so much to learn in the world of horticulture and garden design. This is something garden designer Annie Guilfoyle is passionate about, which is why she, together with horticulturalist Noel Kingsbury, has...
Bulbs are a must for early spring colour, and if you haven’t yet planted yours, there’s still time. It can be a labour-intensive job, but having the right tools saves time. Here are a few options.
Parsnips are fabulous winter root vegetables that can be harvested up until January, once the foliage dies back. But their flavour is improved if you wait until after the first frost, which converts the starch into sugars giving them a...
Low maintenance gardens are ever popular in our busy world. A design that includes good structure with plants and materials that don’t need much upkeep will avoid the garden looking unkempt over the winter.
The days are getting shorter and temperatures dropping, but don’t let it get you down - embrace winter’s beauty with cheerful berries, bark and blooms.
Berries and hips: As well as shining out on a winter’s day, berries and hips...
Winter and early spring is the best time to feed birds, especially during cold snaps, when their natural food supplies are low. Like us, different species eat different things, so choosing bird feeders for different food types, from seeds and...
Charlotte Petts presents a thought-provoking show about nature in both the countryside and urban spaces. She talks to a wide range of gardeners, designers and environmentalists covering everything from healthy soil and the importance of hedges, to foraging, allotments and community...
Julie Walters is one of our best-loved actresses, but she is just as happy pottering about in the garden as treading the boards these days. She even celebrated being made a Dame by weeding her garden!
Autumn is a good time save seed. Leave a few flowerheads on your favourite plants after they've finished blooming to allow the seeds to ripen – aster seeds are attached to a head of fluffy down, which makes them easy...
With Halloween and Thanksgiving upon us, now is a great time to get creative with pumpkins. These huge striking orange fruit look almost surreal growing on the earth connected by their stems, which begin to crack as the pumpkins ripen. ...
As the temperatures drop, instead of packing up the garden for the winter months, why not embrace the Scandi ‘hygge’ way of life? This advocates wrapping up and enjoying the crisp outdoors, whatever the weather. Socialising outside can be fun...
One of the great joys of plants is being able to give and share them. A garden filled with flowers that remind you of your favourite people appeals on an emotional level as well as simply looking good.
As well as being beautiful and relaxing, gardens can also shield us against air pollution from fossil fuels and petrol that damage our health. According to the World Health Organisation, 90% of the world’s population breathe polluted air, which can cause...
The hedgerows are brimming with sloes, so remember to take a pot with you next time you go on a nice autumn walk and gather enough to make some sloe gin for a fruity warming winter drink. Traditionally this should...
The fashion for naturalistic planting continues, and key to this soft, unstructured look is using ornamental grasses. When planted amongst perennials and loosely pruned shrubs, they give the garden wonderful texture and movement. They’re also great at linking plants, acting...
The actress, famed for her role in the BBC drama Silent Witness, loves to unwind in her garden. ‘I’m a big gardener, I love gardening’ she says, recently telling Woman & Home magazine that at some stage in her life...
Winter violas are wonderful hardy little gems that will flower on through the coldest months. Try sowing some seeds now to flower in a few months’ time. Sow seeds thinly and evenly in seed compost and cover as they’ll need darkness to germinate,...
Homegrown apples are a world apart from supermarket-bought ones. An apple tree, with its gorgeous spring blossom and autumn fruit makes an attractive and wildlife friendly addition to any garden, however small. Even their bare gnarly branches in winter have...
The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us. But if your apple and pear trees have grown so tall you can’t reach the fruit at the top of the tree, and ladders aren’t an option, a fruit picker...
