If you’ve ever looked at a burgeoning allotment site crammed with serried ranks of fabulous veggies and wondered ‘how did they do that?’, the answer is probably crop rotation. It’s…
How to
Preparing your soil for sowing
The secrets to successful growing are healthy, nutrient-rich soil and crop rotation, so this week I have been preparing and warming my soil and thinking about what crops to grow…
How to tidy up the strawberry patch
We had a relatively mild autumn here in the south and my strawberry plants have kept on growing and, amazingly, producing flowers and even fruit. These need to be removed…
How to dig in autumn’s green manures
I sowed a batch of green manure in the autumn to help replenish the soil in our raised beds after their contents – onions, shallots, broad beans – had been…
How to move a deciduous tree
Gardening Editor Ruth Hayes shows you how to relocate a young, leafless tree
Get instant colour from bulbs this Spring
Traditionally Autumn is the time to plant out dormant spring bulbs, but if you didn’t get round to the job last year, help is now at hand. Garden centres seem…
How to take rose cuttings and grow roses in potatoes..
Propagating roses by cuttings is easy, and it brings certain side benefits, says Kris (1) In an out-of-the-way part of the garden, which gets some shade during the hottest part…
Sowing perennials for next summer
The prime planting time for perennials is spring, when the soil is warming up and workable after winter’s onslaught, and autumn when it still holds the summer’s sun and is…
Lilies – how to care for lily flowers with a look at ‘Queen of The Night’
How to plant lilies in a pot Loosen the soil with a fork before planting. Plant ideally in a corner sheltered from the wind, along the fence or between other…
Get gardening this May bank holiday weekend!
The weather in May can be a mixed bag, anything for gloriously hot to cold and wet.. But then that could describe any month in summer here in the UK..…