Keep Your Citrus In Shape If you are growing citrus trees in pots they will have loved the Mediterranean-levels of heat and sunshine we experienced for most of this…
Junior
Make Your Garden Greener
Make Your Garden Greener Gardeners are natural custodians of their own little piece of the planet, and as September is the month when the Soil Association highlights the benefits of…
Succeeding with self-seeders
There’s so much to celebrate about footloose and fancy-free self-seeders. These plants are annuals, biennials or perennials that simply scatter copious amounts of seed. For this reason, they pop…
Lawn Care: It Takes Two
Measure twice, cut once. If you want to do something well it pays to do it twice, whether you’re pruning – check twice before you cut – or planting…
On test: Lawn seed and fertiliser spreaders
Distributing lawn seed for a new lawn, or to thicken up your existing grass, can be a haphazard business if it’s broadcast by hand. The same applies to lawn feed,…
Plant out dahlias
The dahlia tubers I re-started earlier in the spring have grown well and are now ready to go out into the garden. Late May is the perfect time as the…
On Test: Lawn Weed, Feed and Moss Killers
LAWNS don’t have to be hard work to keep in good shape. Regular cutting plus a combined feed, weed and moss treatment a few times a year from April…
Lawns and chemicals
When we moved to Spring Cottage 12 years ago, the old shed contained a cocktail of chemicals, including DDT – an organochlorine pesticide that was banned in Britain in 1984.…
How to deal with garden pests
1 Box tree caterpillar The grubs cover plants in webbing. Pick them off, use a pheromone trap or nematodes, or try a chemical such as Bug Clear Gun, Defenders Bug…
Time to make a seedbed
With soil temperatures warming and windowsills overflowing, many gardeners are desperate to begin sowing directly outside during April. You’d think that making a seedbed would be a simple task, and…