Its iconic status belongs to the world of gardening rather than football but one of our most famous gardens, Hidcote in Gloucestershire, is turning to the latest in sports turf technology to help keep its grass paths looking immaculate. (more…)

Homeless people and prisoners on day release have created  the biggest garden ever seen at the Chelsea Flower Show. (more…)

CANCER Research UK will unveil its eighth garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2010 (25 – 29 May 2010), designed for the second year running by four-time gold medal winner, Robert Myers.  (more…)

To mark the launch of Homecare www.homecare-products.co.uk, the first comprehensive online shop for people who want to enjoy living life to the full in their own homes as they grow older, we are giving away a set of Easi-grip Garden Tools  together with a Raised Garden Kneeler and a Paper Potter to one reader.

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Windsor’s royal gardens are open to the public for one day only to raise money for the Animal Health Trust (more…)

Shoppers should avoid big name stores when buying for the garden, according to new research from consumer champion Which? Gardening. (more…)

A spectacular flower bulb mosaic of Russia’s St. Basil’s Cathedral will be the pinnacle of the ‘From Russia with Love’ theme at the Keukenhof this year. From 18 March – 16 May, the mosaic will portray an impression of the towers which frame the centuries’ old cathedral on Moscow’s Red Square. The mosaic cathedral measures 21 by 21 metres and has been created from almost 65,000 flower bulbs. Its colourful magnificence will be revealed at the Keukenhof this spring. (more…)

Slugs and snails were the number one problem on the 2009 Top 10 garden pests list, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). (more…)

Inventors of a pioneering new vertical planting system believe that the hanging basket’s days may be numbered. (more…)

A host of free courses get underway this winter for those wanting to start or strengthen community agriculture schemes.

Soil Association projects manager Bonnie Hewson said: “Whatever type of scheme you are involved with or considering, there are courses for you, from marketing to scaling up production. (more…)

To the gardening world it may have always been considered a fact, but science has never proved the widely held belief that watering your garden in the midday sun can lead to burnt plants. Now a study into sunlit water droplets, published in New Phytologist, provides an answer that not only reverberates across gardens and allotments, but may have implications for forest fires and human sunburn. (more…)

There is still huge disparity between the quality of different composts according to new research from Which? Gardening. (more…)

1. Choose a Christmas tree – Last year Which? Gardening found that Norway Spruce and Nordmann Fir are the best cut Christmas trees to buy, while container grown trees also last well over Christmas.  But avoid potted trees that have been dug up from the ground – they didn’t do at all well in our trial. (more…)

Artistic plans to create a floral tribute to the North East’s best known landmarks have been submitted as Gateshead Council’s entry to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. (more…)

Twigs Way has compiled a full 12 months’ editions of ‘Allotment and Garden Guide’ – the flagship title in the wartime government’s ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign – and adds commentary and insight, not only into gardening but into the war years, with the urgent threat that food might simply run out counterbalanced by the timelessness of seasonal routines. (more…)

Changes in birds and people recorded by Big Garden Birdwatch 1979-2009

The table shows the average number of the top 15 species of birds recorded per garden across the UK in the 1979 Big Garden Birdwatch, and compares this with the results from the 2008 survey. (more…)

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch – the world’s largest wildlife survey – takes place Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 January 2010 and we really need your help. Now in it’s 31st year, we have half a million people participating annually but we can always do with a couple more! (more…)

To celebrate the launch of new wildlife gardening website http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and The Wildlife Trusts are offering 20 copies of the RHS Wildlife Garden book as a free prize draw for people who sign up to the website’s monthly newsletter.  (more…)

Most people have access to an area near their home where wildlife can flourish.  It might be a large mature garden, it might be a balcony.  Some people might be expert gardeners, some might just like to potter.  Whatever your circumstances, there is always something you can do to for wildlife. (more…)

15 October 2009 to 31 March 2010

London Transport Museum celebrates the glory of the suburban garden as part of its next major exhibition, Suburbia. Opening on 15 October 2009, Suburbia will explore how public transport helped to create the myths and identity of suburbia and how it has featured in the cultural fabric of London and Britain over the last 100 years. (more…)

LAUNCH OF NATIONAL SEARCH FOR YOUNG DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2010

Lee Belgrau, a 20-year-old garden design student from Northwich, has been awarded an RHS Gold medal in the Tatton Park Young Designer of the Year Competition at the RHS Show Tatton Park, Cheshire. (more…)

The UK Government is considering reinstating a pesticide, aminopyralid, which has caused huge amounts of damage to fruit and vegetable crops, and which was withdrawn from the market last year. (more…)

A new National Trust initiative launches today to challenge urbanites to transform their window sills into beautiful, tasty vegetable gardens. People living in the UK’s five million flats have the biggest challenge when it comes to finding space to grow food at home, but there are over 600 acres of growing space available on window sills in the UK. (more…)

£6.99
www.dancingbee.com

Each garden is different and each Head Gardener has different methods and means of applying his knowledge. Whether it is sowing times or the right time to clip a hedge in a particular garden, the more we delve into the UK´s famous gardens the more we come across the (more…)

London Transport Museum celebrates the glory of the suburban garden as part of its next major exhibition, Suburbia. Opening on 15 October 2009 to March 2010, Suburbia will explore how public transport helped to create the myths and identity of suburbia and how it has featured in the cultural fabric of London and Britain over the last 100 years. (more…)

Exhibitors at this year’s RHS Show Tatton Park (22-26 July 2009) had the Midas touch with 61 RHS Gold medals having been awarded across all categories.

A 20-year-old garden design student from Northwich was the recipient of the first RHS Gold medal awarded in a regional Young Designer of the Year competition. Lee Belgrau delivered a (more…)

Launch of National Search for young designer of the year 2010

Well done!

Lee Belgrau, a 20-year-old garden design student from Northwich, has been awarded an RHS Gold medal in the Tatton Park Young Designer of the Year Competition at the RHS Show Tatton Park, Cheshire.

This year’s regional competition, jointly funded by the RHS and the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), is being used as a launch platform for the (more…)

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has launched a poll to find out how gardeners became gardeners – and it needs your help to fill in the blanks.

Through its Campaign for School Gardening, the RHS knows that children are learning to garden and thriving because of it, (more…)

2009 is proving to be the year that kitchen gardening goes mainstream with a huge increase in the number of people growing their own fruit and veg. Since the start of the year UK-based website GrowVeg.com has seen an explosion in the number of gardeners using its service. (more…)

At Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2009

Award Winning East Horsley based garden designer Fiona Stephenson returns to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show after winning a silver gilt medal in 2007 for her show garden – “Growing Together” This year’s garden is entered in the ‘Sustainable Gardens’ category and has been inspired by the Prince’s Rainforest Project: www.rainforestsos.org (more…)

Gardener to the historic gardens of Roman Camp House Hotel, Callander and his new green gym community activity dates

Ian Crump, an exciting and challenging task ahead...

Ian Crump joins an illustrious line of gardeners who have lovingly tended down the centuries the historic gardens of Roman Camp House in Callander. Originally owned by the Earls of Moray this former shooting lodge is surrounded by 20 acres of formal and mature gardens. (more…)

Flowers for a seaside garden

Armeria maritima

Armeria maritima
Among garden plants native to our coastline, perhaps the best-known and loved is thrift – Armeria maritima – a perfect choice for carpeting a bank or edging a border with evergreen foliage and bright pink, red or white flowers from May to July.

Limonium vulgare

Limonium vulgare
The flowers can be dried for autumn vases, as can those of the common sea-lavender – Limonium vulgare – which makes a wonderful show of colour on salt marshes around the coast in late summer. Easy-going red valerian – Centranthus – will grow in tiny crevices among rocks, while garden forms of the seaside aster – Erigeron glaucus – are mat-forming evergreen perennials with large daisy flowers throughout summer.

Osteospermum ecklonis

Osteospermum ecklonis
Low-growing plants are a wise choice for a windswept garden. One such – Osteospermum ecklonis – is a parent of many lovely perennial plants, with daisy blooms above low mats of foliage. I grow this on a low bank at the edge of my drive alongside Anthemis cupaniana, which makes a sprawling cushion of finely-cut silvery foliage topped in early summer by masses of daisies. Ornamental grasses will mostly thrive near the coast.

Salvia firecracker

Salvia firecracker
Choose shorter, more compact, varieties of half-hardy summer bedding plant, perhaps with Cineraria maritima Dwarf Silver for foliage effect among bright flowering plants such as scarlet Salvia Firecracker. The cineraria can be grown as a short-term perennial, making a shrubby plant to prune back in April. It is also good in containers.

Lavender santolina

Lavender santolina
Plants with tough silver and grey foliage are often good by the sea. There are the many good forms of eryngium, other than our native sea holly. The leaves of the pink family Dianthus shrug off salty water and look great, even when the plants are out of bloom. Both silver and green forms of the cotton lavender Santolina are good foliage plants and delight with their golden button summer blooms.

Rosmarinus officinalis

Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary is a wonderful shrub that comes in many varieties. The Latin name – Rosmarinus – means dew of the sea, in reference to the plant’s native habitat on the Mediterranean coast. Lavender, thyme, marjoram and fennel are other herbs happy near the coast.

Before choosing border plants I always advise strolling around the area to see what grows best in local gardens.

1 COST CUTTINGS
Before shelling out cash on brand new plants, taking some time to prepare and get some expert help (see www.which.co.uk/gardening) can save you money. Also try taking cuttings from friends’ plants and if you buy seeds, don’t plant the whole packet. Some could last a good few years.

2 GiVE US A HAND
A hand cylinder mower can be a good choice if you have a small garden. Generally cheaper than electric and petrol mowers, they’re also great for the environment. The Husqvarna Novocut 64 is a Which? Gardening Best Buy, available for £79.95 plus grass collector at £14.95 from www.greenwarehouse.co.uk – about £80 cheaper than the top electric mower.

3 HEDGE YOUR BETS
If you’re looking for aBest Buy bargain that will keep your garden hedge under control, try the Bosch AHS 48-16. At time of going to press, you could get this trimmer online for £41.99 – a saving of over £60 on the most expensive Best Buy.

4 SAVE FOR TO-MARROW
Growing your own veg doesn’t have to be hard work and it could help you save on food bills. Almost all veg can be grown in pots, provided they are big enough to allow root space and you keep them watered. Visit www.which.co.uk/advice/your-garden for more.

5 SWAP TILL YOU DROP
Swap your excess plants, unwanted bulbs, and unsown seeds at websites such as www.plantsreunited.com or www.gardenswapshop.co.uk. You sign up for free, browse the items on offer and, if something takes your fancy, can start swapping immediately.

6 GET SEEDY
Yet another great website for swapping is is www.seedypeople.co.uk, which helps you exhange seeds and plants. However, the site also runs Seedy Sunday (www.seedysunday.org), which is ‘the UK’s biggest community seed swap’ – check the site for dates and locations.

7 SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
If you want to enjoy gardening on a budget why not try a mini greenhouse. Access Value Half Wall Frame FW3-VP is a Which? Gardening Best Buy, available at £148 from www.garden-products.co.uk. Ideal for use under a window it produces top-quality plants and has plenty of growing room.

8 FREE COMPOST
About 40% of dustbin waste is suitable for home composting, so why not make your own? A 56l bag of Miracle-Gro Soil Improver is £3.98 at Homebase while home compost is free. Visit www.recyclenow.com for more information.

9 SALAD DAYS ARE HERE
With the barbecue season on its way, what better to go with burgers than your own fresh tomatoes. A bag of great value Westland Growbag (£1.99) and a pack of Chempak Standard Tomato Food can produce around 12kg of tomatoes – a big saving on shop prices.

10 BEG, BARROW AND STEAL
If you’re looking for a money-saving wheelbarrow, go for the Best Buy B&Q Sovereign at £40. It will save you nearly £40 over the most expensive barrow on test. Visit www.which.co.uk/wheelbarrows.

Planting a hanging basket

1. Place the hanging basket on a bucket or large container. Line with moist sphagnum moss, coir, or other hanging basket liner.

2. Add some soil-less or multi-purpose compost; hanging basket compost is available which includes slow-release fertiliser and water-retaining granules.

3. Water plants and put them in the side of the basket. Build moss and compost layers around them. With other liners, cut cross-shaped holes around sides and put plant roots through the holes.

4. Fill basket with compost, then place low-growing and trailing plants around the edge. Finish with upright or taller growing plants in the centre.

5. Firm the compost, water well and hang on a secure hook. Water daily, provide a liquid feed fortnightly (if no slow-release fertiliser has been added).

It’s time to think about the new season’s plantings, so James Henry offers some ideas for eye-popping displays. Whether your garden is traditional, with borders, or a modern, lower maintenance design with most of your plants in containers, you can always boost your displays of blooms with some spectacular show plants.

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Eschcholzia_californica

The Californian poppy, Eschcholzia californica, is one of the most dazzling summer annuals. In a warm year, flowering throughout summer, the satiny flowers and delicately fringed foliage form a compact growth structure (15x12cms/12x6in) excellent for bedding and dry, mixed borders. Eschcholzia come in gorgeous shades of orange, yellow and red and grow best in full sun, as blooms close at night and in dull weather. Good in seaside gardens. Autumn sow where plants are to bloom, or sow in March or April to flower later that year.
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BBC Gardeners’ World Live returns to The NEC from 10 – 14 June with more opportunity to get up close and personal with the Gardeners’ World presenters than ever before! New presenter Toby Buckland will join Carol Klein and Joe Swift and a host of other celebrity gardeners giving live demonstrations in the Celebrity Theatre and for the first time the BBC 2 Gardeners’ World team and the magazine team will be gardening live at the show in the exciting new Live Garden feature. (more…)

The Chelsea Flower Show has been showcasing all that’s new in horticulture and the best of the traditional for almost a century. This year one of the courtyard gardens designed by Pat Fox from Aralia Garden Design will display not only horticultural innovation with a living wall but also the ultimate in eco friendly lighting, sound and entertainment systems designed by Neil Gaffan of Saffron Waldon based Eco-Lutions. (more…)

Which? gardening brings you the Best Buys lawnmowers for under £300

With two poor summers behind us, you may have neglected replacing your battered old lawnmower for a while, but don’t worry – the prices seem to be coming down for all types. (more…)

Back advice website offers top tips to get you back on track and gardening this summer.

A recent survey found that 80% of people in the UK suffer with back pain, but despite its many health benefits, more than half of adults over 35 put their pain down to a result of the nation’s favourite pastime… gardening. (more…)

Growing your own has never been more popular and a trend that is also popular at the moment is using less pesticides and more natural fertilisers. This is particularly important with edible plants as many people don’t want to be eating residues left by pesticides and eating fruit and vegetables that may have little or no flavour as they were exclusively fed with artificial chemical fertilisers.
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Spalding will be adorned in its flowery dress on 2nd – 4th May at this year’s celebration of all things flora.

Hundreds of flowers and plants will bring Spalding to life and kick-start summer with colourful and intricate displays. Based at the Springfields Event Centre, the event will include much of what has delighted the visiting public for many years. Structures covered in fresh tulip heads, marching bands and children’s activities will all be featured at this popular annual event. Special displays featuring a host of childhood characters and themes including the Owl and the Pussycat, Alice in Wonderland and the World of Beatrix Potter will delight visitors of all ages. (more…)

The National Trust has announced that it is making available 1000 plots for conversion to allotments; a response to our ever growing desire to avoid rising food prices and produce our own fresh fruit and veg.

The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney is more than a gardening guide, it is a celebration of life on the much sought-after British allotment. Although it is based on Binney’s first-hand experience, it also contains quotes and stories from hundreds of other allotment enthusiasts. Binney provides useful tips and techniques and also shares recipes to make with your fresh produce. She is not afraid to include details of her failures and disappointments; as one gardener says, “It’s all trial and error.”

Binney comments, “As well as giving us a chance to grow our own food (and battle the weeds) tending our plot did wonders for mind and body, and was a welcome refuge from the claustrophobia of flat life.” For anyone with an allotment already, or sitting on the 150,000 people-long waiting list to acquire one, The Allotment Experience will tell you everything you need to know about making the most of your plot.

About the author: Ruth Binney has, with her husband Donald, been cultivating allotments for more than 25 years, in London and most recently in Dorset, where she now lives. She is an editor and author who, during a long career in publishing, has been involved in the creation of books on gardening and may other topics, particularly country wisdom. She is secretary of her local horticultural association and an occasional prize winner at its annual shows. This is her sixth book.

The Allotment Experience is published by How To Books Ltd. www.howtobooks.co.uk and is available at £10.99 in major bookshops and online retailers across the country. ISBN 978-1- 905862-26-9

Garden planning specialists GrowVeg.com have just launched a series of online guides to growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in your own garden.

More and more people are experiencing the thrill of growing their own fresh produce yet the specialist knowledge required to succeed at this can be daunting. Not only do different vegetables need sowing and planting at specific times but they also need spacing correctly, planting in the correct position and protecting from pests. The techniques vary from plant to plant and just knowing when to feed or harvest them can often save your whole crop from spoiling.

To make the process simple, GrowVeg.com have created a series of free online ‘GrowGuides’ listing all the important information for more than 90 fruit, vegetables and herbs from their extensive database. Each plant contains a full listing of all the vital factors that enable it to be grown successfully together with information on troubleshooting and harvesting.

As well as the plant information, gardeners can add their own growing tips and advice. The thousands of people who use GrowVeg.com will be using this to build up a repository of all the shared gardening knowledge about each crop along with helpful ways to grow them.

To complement this there are a series of GrowGuide articles written by gardening experts. These cover topics such as Controlling Pests, Starting a New Plot and Gardening with Children.

The new GrowGuides can also work in conjunction with GrowVeg.com’s unique Garden Planning Tool which is used by gardeners to organise their vegetable plots. This online software makes it simple to create plans, print customised planting calendars and rotate crops from year to year. Gardeners can opt to receive email reminders of when to sow and plant each of their vegetables and these link directly to the GrowGuide plant pages. Getting organised in the garden has never been so easy!

GrowVeg.com’s GrowGuides can be found at www.GrowVeg.com/growguides.aspx

It’s good news for families! The Royal Horticultural Society has announced that from 2009 under 16 year olds will be admitted, free of charge, to all of its gardens in the month of August and to the RHS shows at Cardiff, Hampton Court and Tatton Park.
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Compost producers need to up their game in order to produce good quality, peat-free composts that live up to their peat-based counterparts, according to new research by Gardening Which?.
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…visit The International Wild Flower Festival In Slovenia to find out more!

For anyone interested in wild flowers – including how to cook with them – the third International Wild Flower Festival between 23rd May and 6th June, near Bohinj in Slovenia’s Triglav National Park, is the perfect opportunity to find out more.
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Selected highlights of the Great Pavilion at the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show – 19-23 May

The Great Pavilion is the jewel in the crown of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and in 2009 it’s set to sparkle brightly. New plants, creative displays, and a profusion of perfect blooms will create the explosion of colours and scents which, year after year, is many show visitors’ favourite experience. (more…)

The RSPB’s big garden birdwatch

More than three million Big Garden Birdwatch hours will be clocked up as the RSPB marks 30 years of the event. With up to half a million people taking part each year, the survey has made a major contribution to tracking garden bird numbers over the winter. (more…)

A simple new product will stop the need to climb ladders and clear leaves and other debris from house guttering. Clearing gutters can be a tricky task because you are working at height. GutterMate™, from Sankey Home & Garden Products, is a simple solution, preventing blocked drains and conserving rainwater at the same time. (more…)

The Alan Titchmarsh Show and RHS launch search for ‘The People’s Gardener’

ITV1’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show has teamed up with the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom to launch the search for ‘The People’s Gardener’. The competition to find the country’s most passionate community gardeners was launched on Monday 19th January. Every fortnight The Alan Titchmarsh Show will profile four candidates for the title and a spectacular prize, which includes the chance to present a gardening slot on The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s autumn series. (more…)

Floristry at the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show (19-23 May 2009)
Feeding the public’s appetite for floral design, in 2009 the world’s most famous flower show will be a festival of floristry and will, for the first time, search for the “Chelsea Florist of the Year”. (more…)

The RSPB’s Homes for Wildlife – 2008 results
More than 25,000 gardeners have done an average of 12 things each to help frogs, toads, bats, insects, hedgehogs and birds in the last year, says the RSPB. Providing seed mixes, growing flowering nectar-rich plants and planting dense thorny bushes are just some of the top actions people have taken as part of the RSPB’s Homes for Wildlife project. (more…)

Cats, squirrels and rabbits are the most troublesome animal visitors to gardens, according to new research from Which? Gardening. While they may be popular pets, 80 per cent of people surveyed* said that they had problems with cats in their garden over the last twelve months. Fouling was the biggest complaint, but Which? Gardening members also reported problems with feline visitors flattening seedlings and plants, killing and deterring birds and digging up plants. (more…)

Restoration specialists from Rok are helping recreate a magnificent lost Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. After archaeological evidence revealed the original dimensions of the 16th century garden beneath the castle’s existing 1970’s garden, English Heritage experts appointed Rok to help recreate the garden in the exact form it was presented for the visit of Queen Elizabeth I in July 1575.
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