Becoming the owner of a garden can be an exiting and daunting experience. First-timers probably have big ambitions for their garden, but realising those dreams is difficult without the know-how. All too often, newbie gardeners play it safe and boring due to a lack of confidence in their abilities. Research …
Read More »Designer Gardens to Suit You
Gardens, like homes, tend to reflect the lives of those who live in it. Sun worshippers will have garden furniture for sunbathing and dining, more private residents may opt for tall privet bushes to shield them from unwanted attention, while those used to entertaining might plump for more lavish displays, …
Read More »Tubs and Troughs
It’s hard to be enthusiastic about gardening when the weather is grey and miserable. But think ahead to what a few splashes of localised colour will do to brighten your back garden and lift your spirits when the days improve. There’s no simpler way of perking up the smallest garden …
Read More »Gardening made easy
What do you see when you open the back door? Is your back garden more jungle than Kew? It may seem like a daunting task getting your garden ready for summer and the customary array of BBQs and family get-togethers, but don’t panic, garden tool manufacturer Black & Decker is …
Read More »Grow Your Garden’s Value
When most of us want to sell our home we focus on what we can do inside it, but the difference you make on the outside can prove extremely profitable. A well-kept garden can be a growing investment for your property, boosting its value by up to 10 per cent, …
Read More »Grow your own spuds
Concerns over pesticides and genetically modified crops have got many people thinking about growing their own fruit and vegetables. But you don’t have to be green-fingered or even have a garden to start growing your own food. Potatoes can be grown from a sack with little to no effort at …
Read More »Magic tricks for small gardens
Magic is all about illusion. When it comes to making a small space look larger, there are loads of ideas to trick the eye into a fooled sense of space. Gardening for small spaces borrows many tricks of the trade from interior design and the world of art, both of …
Read More »Gardening for the birds
Gardens can be designed and grown for the enjoyment of local wildlife as well as your own. A garden wildlife sanctuary can attract a continuous variety of birds throughout the seasons. Birds and butterflies are the most popular and easiest of all wildlife to attract if you provide food, water, …
Read More »A shedload of value
Gone are the days when dads pottered about in the garden shed, tinkering with machinery or finding new ways to keep unwanted insects off their vegetable patch. Don’t get us wrong, there’s no doubt that men still use the garden shed as a refuge – a means of escaping the …
Read More »Four seasons garden
Do you enviously look across to your neighbour’s garden and wonder why it always seems to have a selection of flowers and foliage in bloom, no matter what the season? Well now you too can enjoy the benefits of garden that offers year round floral displays -all it takes is …
Read More »Crazy talking with plants
Back in the 1970s, talking, singing or even playing plants their own music was kitsch. Thirty years on, are your house and garden plants suffering in silence? Or do you secretly sing them a little ditto or tell them a story? You can expect that a few gardeners have the …
Read More »A useful garden: growing medicinal herbs
William Morris once said “have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful and do not believe to be beautiful.” In many ways the same could be said of a garden, although we tend to keep along the lines of more beautiful than useful these days. …
Read More »What makes the perfect family garden?
When considering the perfect garden most of us want perfect manicured lawns, pretty, neat flower beds and perhaps a charming water feature. But how useable is a garden where everything has its place? And how much can kids enjoy it? The typical British garden is all about a nice patch …
Read More »Grow your own strawberries
At the time of year when Wimbledon is in full swing, evenings stay light until 10pm and there’s nothing more satisfying than a BBQ in the garden accompanied by a bottle of light summer ale, there’s one fruit on the minds of allotmenteers – the humble British strawberry. For those …
Read More »Creating a garden for wildlife
Even in inner city areas wildlife is incredibly important, as well as being surprisingly abundant. Wildlife adds something extra to any garden, taking it beyond just a bit of grass or a flower bed, making a city garden a haven, bringing a suburban garden together with its surroundings. Sadly many …
Read More »Gardening for the eco warrior
Make these simple changes to your gardening regime to keep your carbon footprint right down while your garden looks good the year round… Swap Your Mower Swapping your petrol mower for a manual equivalent can save a massive 36kg of CO2 annually and save you around £18 a year too, …
Read More »An exotic garden in a British climate
Putting together a jungle-inspired garden in a country where rain falls throughout the year and frosts hit at the most unexpected times isn’t the easiest thing to do. Indeed if you’re a fair weather gardener all the application of fleece jackets and bringing plants inside is probably a little too …
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