Gardeners' Heaven

New Garden Shopping List 2010 saw 160,000 new homes built and if you’re a new homeowner, you’ve probably been presented with a blank canvas in the way of garden. Even for the experienced gardener, having to start from scratch can be daunting so to help you plan for a fabulous garden in 2012 here are [...]

It seems awful early to be picking sloes, but yesterday on a lovely August Bank Holiday Monday morning, I did just that. And I wasn’t the first.  Bush after bush had already been stripped bare, smacking of a more professional approach than a  home-made past-time.  However,  my morning walk is blessed with hedgerows full of [...]

It’s pay-off time out in the veg patch, as you reap the rewards of all your earlier efforts. But don’t get complacent; this is not the time to let things slide. What’s really vital right now is making sure that crops don’t go short of water. Summer veggies such as courgettes, tomatoes and runner beans [...]

by Alan Titchmarsh While summery displays of pelargoniums, fuchsias and other showy tender perennials are still going strong, do yourself a favour – take a few cuttings before the first frost kills off your original plants. Cuttings are very easy; taken now, they root quickly and you’ll get good results even if you’ve never tried [...]

by Alan Titchmarsh Oh, it’s happened to all of us. You come home from work to find your hanging baskets flagging, and tubs and troughs all of a flop.  It’s easily done when containers are full to bursting point with lush summer annuals and you weren’t there to water them just when they needed it. [...]

by Alan Titchmarsh Queen Victoria spent her summer hols at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, and her gardeners were tasked with seeing to it that the garden ‘peaked’ during her stay. The late Queen Mother did much the same with her walled garden at the Castle of Mey in Caithness (the most northerly [...]

by Alan Titchmarsh What can we do today? It’s the slogan of many a long summer holiday. But for gardening families – or indeed anyone interested in getting outdoors and enjoying the fresh air and summer flowers – there’s always something interesting going on. It’s just a case of finding it. The Internet makes it [...]

Up and down the country, front gardens are being occupied.  Strange creatures strike ridiculous poses in imaginative tableaux but wait for them to move and you’ll be there a long time. Welcome to the world of the scarecrow festival – a relatively new concept in community fundraising.  Basically you get your village, street, local community [...]

Squash, Zuccini, call them what you will.  Courgettes of all shapes and sizes are in abundance right now and making a healthy wholesome soup from them couldn’t be simpler. Courgettes are a good source of vitamin A, and low in calories. They contain a healthy supply of manganese, folate, and potassium. They’re  a great food [...]

by the Reluctant Gardener There are times when gardening can seem like an altogether thankless task. Blessed as we have been with the sun and rain combo of July, this has just meant that the weeds have gone absolutely crazy and are growing like, well, weeds.  You really need to keep on top of them [...]