News - Page 104
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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...
It's time for the annual autumn spectacular as trees across the country turn a fireworks display of red, purple, orange and yellow, flooding gardens, parks and landscapes with rich, warm colour.
Get some late-season inspiration with a visit to one of the UK's best autumn gardens: it's a great way to discover new trees to add an extra flare of colour to your own garden. There's Ardingly in West Sussex with acres of specimen shrubs, lakes and woodland; Dr...
Grab the garlic and start carving your pumpkins – it's time for Hallowe'en! As the witching hour approaches we've filled our shelves with goodies to create your own spooktacular Hallowe'en party this weekend.
If you didn't get around to growing your own monster pumpkin this year, don't worry – we've got plenty, so pop over to our garden centre here in London and pick out your Jack 'o' Lantern ready to carve for the big day. How about surrounding them wi...
Turn your pampered pumpkins into scary Hallowe'en faces ready to scare off passing ghosties and ghoulies (or just marauding trick-or-treaters) on October 31st.
This is one gardening job all the kids can get stuck into. Choose your biggest, ripest pumpkins (they should sound hollow when you knock them) and cut them away from the plant with about 5cm of stem.
Then using a sharp knife remove a circle out of the top with the stalk attached to m...
Sow sweet peas now for early flowers next year and a riot of colour and fragrance weeks before spring-sown plants are ready.
Sweetpeas are one of the nation's favourite flowers and ideal for attracting pollinating insects into the plot as well as providing sweetly-scented cut flowers for the table. Getting them sown in autumn and keeping them going through winter might seem like a fiddle, but come next spring when you've got flowers a whole month earlie...
Ripen the last of your tomatoes while there's still warmth in the autumn sunshine – you've got a couple of weeks before you run out of time and have to admit defeat.
Even in good summers, it's a lucky gardener who ripens every tomato perfectly - but with quick action now you can increase your red tomato quota considerably.
Early on, start removing any large leaves which are shading your fruit (don't overdo this, though, or you'll reduce the...
Dust off the spade and put your back into some autumn digging: with the soil still workable yet nice and damp from the autumn rains, it's the perfect time of year to turn new beds or improve established ones.
There's hot debate over whether or not digging is necessary: many don't dig at all, saying it destroys the soil's structure. Instead, they argue, it's better to let the worms draw a thick mulch of organic matter into the soil naturally.
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Gardeners could be changing migration patterns according to the British Trust for Ornithology, who have been looking into how bird behaviour is changing as a result of our habit of feeding our feathered friends with a feast of peanuts, seeds and fat balls.
Researchers analysed the results of the BTO's annual garden bird survey from the last 12 years and found one bird in particular, the blackcap, has taken to staying in the UK over winter in the last fe...
The tang of autumn is in the air and there's a certain urgency creeping in this month, as you've only a few weeks to get the harvest in and settle the garden down for its long winter rest. Here's what to do:
General tasks:
Hold off pruning hedges which have berries, like hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble or dog roses, so birds can enjoy this essential food supply.
Turn compost bins one last time before winter and cover with card...
The plant of the month for October is the conifer, and there's a good reason to be celebrating these beautiful evergreen trees as this week is National Conifer Week.
Chances are you already have a conifer in your garden as they're hugely popular garden trees. Whether you've got a container, tiny city garden or acres of lawn, you'll find a conifer that's just the right shade, texture, shape and size, from low-growing hummocky Pinus mugo to Korean fir wit...
Spread the word on wildlife in your garden and you could help reverse the trend of declining populations and habitat loss, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). They want you to talk to friends, family and neighbours about the wildlife in your garden in the hope that people will get together to link gardens into Britain's biggest wildlife sanctuary.
A survey carried out by the RSPB found almost three-quarters of us haven't s...
Job of the week: Feed the compost heap
As you put the garden to bed you'll generate a huge mass of fallen leaves, old crops and cleared material. As long as it's disease free, use it to fill the compost heap, converting green waste into valuable organic soil improver. Chop up woody material as small as possible, and mix different materials together as you fill the bin. In six months you should have a dark, rich, crumbly compost to use through...
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