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In the 19 May issue of Amateur Gardening magazine

Link to In the 19 May issue of Amateur Gardening magazine

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Newsflash:
The cost of gardening soars 12.6% in a year
Alnwick Garden to open a Jamie Oliver Cooking School
Union slams water companies for massive profits

CHELSEA PREVIEW
The plants, the gossip, the gardens and more!
CHELSEA FRINGE FESTIVAL
We explore …

Plant up begonia containers

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Light up shady spots with these summer favourites

Begonias require free draining conditions. Line your chosen container with an inch or so of gravel, broken crocks or grit, for good drainage.

Fill the pot with a multipurpose and John Innes no.2 compost mix. Gently firm, leaving one inch (2.5cm) of pot rim on show to aid watering.

Set …

Product profile – coffee fertiliser

Link to Product profile – coffee fertiliser

Now you’re garden and the environment can reap the rewards of that relaxing cup of coffee you had at the garden centre. Notcutts Garden Centres have teamed up with Greencup Coffee to turn used coffee beans, that would normally end up in landfill, into organic fertilizer and selling it nationwide at 19 Notcutts centres.
Along with …

Michelle’s blog: A fresh bed

Link to Michelle’s blog: A fresh bed

This year my annual purple sprouting broccoli has cropped very well, fully stripped of their florets I dug up the plants up to make way for my summer cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts.

I weeded and dug in plenty of compost and gave the raised bed a good feed of chicken manure pellets to replenish the soil. …

Red alert over Monty Don’s lily beetle tip

Link to Red alert over Monty Don’s lily beetle tip

Plant protection firms have accused Gardeners’ Worldpresenter Monty Don of issuing biased advice on how to control a troublesome plant pest.

On BBC2’s flagship show last Month, Monty told how he’d found lily beetle on a fritillary at Longmeadow, his Herefordshire plot.

“They’re bright red, so thankfully they’re easy to see, because the only way to get …

Palm in a pot

Link to Palm in a pot

Palms make an elegant addition to patio container displays. Get the look with Kris’s simple 5 step planting guide. Palm used: Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis)

1)    Place an inch or two of gravel or broken crocks in the bottom of a frost-proof pot and part fill with John Innes no.2 soil-based compost. Test the …

Potting on plug plants

Link to Potting on plug plants

Other than larger ‘Garden Ready’ plugs which can go straight into garden soil, the potting on process is the same for all plugs, the only difference is the pot or cell size you use.

Follow Garden editor Kris Collins, step by step on potting on plug plants.

On delivery, remove packaging and give plants a good drink. …

Product review: potato planters

Link to Product review: potato planters

Product review: potato planters
Consumer editor Julia Heaton finds out which reuseable potato planters are the most user-friendly
Best buy 18/20

Three potato patio planters  £12.99 (p&p £4.50)
Haxnicks from garden centres
Tel. 0845 241 1555
www.haxnicks.co.uk
BUILD 4
Round polyethylene bags with side handles and reinforced metal edged drainage holes, offset from each other around the base and sides. Double stitching up …

Critic slams National Gardens Scheme

Link to Critic slams National Gardens Scheme

The National Gardens Scheme (NGS) has come under fire from gardening’s most outspoken critic.

Anne Wareham argued that the NGS “blighted gardens in the UK forever” when it was created 85 years ago.

Writing in The Spectator about the NGS, which sees over 3,600 gardens open each year for charity, Anne said: “It started as a scheme …

Concern over pesticides and bee death

Link to Concern over pesticides and bee death

Gardeners are set to come under more pressure to ditch a group of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, due to worries over bee colony death.

An investigation at Reading University, backed by Friends of the Earth, found it would cost £1.8billion a year to hand-pollinate UK crops if bees died out altogether.

In April, Amateur Gardening reported how French …

Product profile – leaf blower

Link to Product profile – leaf blower

Leaf blower

There’s a lot to be said for having the extra freedom to move around that battery machinery so obviously provides. And where leaf fall is concerned that freedom to roam is what the Bosch cordless leaf blower is all about. As well as having a powerful 18v Lithium-ion battery it’s got lots of complimentary …

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