News - Page 104
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Lift and divide rhubarb while it’s still dormant to keep it producing those long, sweet stalks for many more years to come. It’s also a good time for planting new crowns, so pop down to our garden centre here in London and take your pick from our great range of varieties from super-early cropping ‘Timperley’s Early’ to productive traditional favourite ‘Victoria’.
Rhubarb grows so enthusiastically given a rich soil in sun or part shade that older clumps...
December's plant of the month is Sarcococca – also known as Christmas box. It’s a great addition to the winter garden: not only is it evergreen, but it’s also very sweetly scented, filling the garden with an aroma of vanilla. Its fragrant white flowers decorate the garden over winter and early spring, and as if that wasn’t enough they’re followed by red and black berries.
You might think a shrub with such scent and beauty would be tricky to grow – but S...
It’s nearly Christmas and we’re in holiday mode! Time to get outside and pick festive greenery for wreaths and decorations. While you’re out there, there are a few more jobs you can be getting on with too:
General tasks
- Cover empty soil with clear polythene to warm the soil and keep it workable
- Cover compost bins with cardboard to prevent all the goodness being leached away by winter rains
...
The EU is banning some invasive garden plants from the beginning of next year, to stop them ‘jumping the garden fence’ to become established in the wild where they outcompete native flowers and endanger wildlife.
There are 37 non-native invasive species on the EU’s hit list: they include the huge yellow-flowered bog plant American skunk cabbage, plus invasive pond dwellers like curly waterweed (Lagarosiphon major) and water hyacinth. All these have escaped in...
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It’s been a record year for poinsettias, the nation’s favourite Christmas flower. Growers in the UK have been cossetting tens of thousands of seedlings ready for the big spike in sales in the festive season – and this year there are more new varieties than ever before, too.
The showy Mexican natives with their huge brightly-coloured bracts are arriving in our garden centre here in London right now, so make sure you get here as soon as you can for the pick of...
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Happy National Tree Week! The country’s biggest celebration of the oldest and most valued plants in our landscape begins this week – and it’s a particularly special year, marking the 40th anniversary of the first event back in 1975.
At that time Dutch Elm Disease was ravaging millions of beautiful old elm trees, and the first National Tree Week began as a way of bringing people together to replant new trees in the place of those lost.
Now as new diseas...
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Sow garlic now before the cold weather sets in, just in time for the cloves to catch a good dose of frost so they split and form big, plump bulbs next year.
You’ll find big fat garlic bulbs on sale right now from our garden centre here in London, certified virus-free and ready to plant outside. Choose from softneck varieties like ‘Solent Wight’, which you can dry and store for your winter supplies; or hardnecks like ‘Red Sicilian’ or ‘Lautrec Wight’, wh...
Congratulations to Norton in Hales, in Shropshire – this year’s Britain in Bloom Champion of Champions!
The village – population 300 - beat 70 finalists to win the coveted title and judges described it as ‘a beautiful picturesque rural village set in the heart of England’. Among the innovations which won them the top prize were a recycling network which transformed coffee granules and bark mulch into fertiliser and slug repellent, and the huge effort made by...
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Give winter veg a little TLC as they go into the coldest months of the year to make sure your garden stays as productive in the off-season as it was in summer.
Sprouts, kale, overwintering broad beans and peas, chard and winter lettuces all soldier on through the cold. But although they’ll survive without you, you’ll maximise your harvest by giving them a helping hand through the harshest weather.
Damp, rather than cold, is the main enemy...
November's plants of the month are trees – the most invaluable occupants of any garden. November is also a great month to plant them, as moderate temperatures and rainfall allow plants to root and acclimatise before spring comes around.
There's a tree for every situation, whether wet or dry, acid, alkaline, chalky or clay. From flowering cherries and crab apples to evergreen yews and weeping willows, trees offer different leaf size, shape and colour. Th...
Wrap up warm and get outside to enjoy those clear frosty days that often herald the start of winter. There's loads to be getting on with: here are some jobs to tick off your list this month.
General tasks:
Keep containers safe from frost by wrapping them in bubble wrap or hessian.
Take one last cut off the lawn with the height of the blades raised to allow for slower autumn growth.
Ornamental garden:...
Plant a windowsill herb garden for a delicious taste of summer in the depths of winter without even having to step outside your back door.
As the gardening year slows it's hard to give up luxuries like chopping generous handfuls of fresh herbs straight into your cooking. But indoor herb gardens created this month keep you in freshly-picked flavour all winter long. You can pick some herbs, such as rosemary and sage, all year round from the garden. But he...