Gardening

Get gardening ideas from our top garden tips, advice and news to inspire you

Ideas for strong bright colours Imagine how much more inviting a sunny patio will look with containers filled with blooms in the tropical shades of scarlet and orange. To maintain…

Tall and dramatic Known as desert candles or foxtail lilies, the stately spikes of eremurus like it sunny and dry and, in order to induce flowering, a cold snap in…

Cultivating soil is fundamental to good gardening. It improves the soil’s structure as reducing compaction increases aeration, so that more air gets to plant roots and drainage is enhanced. How…

English country garden

Even if you live in the suburbs and your house is modern, it’s easy to create an authentic country-style cottage garden if you look to your granny’s garden for inspiration.…

Irises

Irises have been a favourite flower since the Chinese fell in love with them thousands of years ago. Their picture-perfect blooms have also been a source of inspiration for many…

Green Grass

1. Green Up Grass The most common reason for a lawn turning yellow is excess heat and drought, but over-fertilising with nitrogen is another. Feeding a hungry lawn with leaf-making…

Weeds

Stinging nettles Well-known for their painful sting, these weeds are widespread. They produce a dense mat of bright yellow roots and form thickets of erect stems more than a metre…

Alpine plants

The majority of alpine enthusiasts use rock gardens replicating their natural habitats to grow these mini mountain plants. Since the 1980s rockeries have been out of favour with less committed…

Dried flowers craft garden

Homegrown veg can be a real money-spinner, especially if they’re organic. Consider getting an allotment, as your plot could provide enough food to feed 20 people when in full production.…

Spring bulbs to plant

Plant bulbs now for a garden full of colourful surprises in spring. They’re easy to grow – simply dig a hole, pop them in and wait! Most spring-flowering bulbs prefer…

Prairie garden

Naturalised ‘prairie’ planting remains very much in fashion after more than 30 years, mainly because it is trouble-free and is an attractive alternative to an English cottage border. It also…

Dianthus

Resembling a mini florist carnation, easy-care dianthus – which we call ‘pinks’ because the serrated edges to the petals look as though they have been cut with pinking shears –…

Your garden: How to plant it

Scent connects with people in so many different ways. It switches on lights from your past, drawing forward precious memories. It’s a good idea therefore, to build a garden around…

Your garden: How to plant it

One of the toughest parts of planning your garden is figuring out how to plant it. For an instant, new-look garden, take a tip from the experts and reshape the…

Perennials

Flower beds stuffed with plants is the key to creating a great garden and reliable, perennial favourites, like bee balm or Monarda which attract pollinators such as butterflies and bees,…

Gold plants Aureola

Plants that have yellow-gold leaves add a splash of instant sunshine to a shady corner, an effect that lasts longer than any flowers. They look fabulous beside perennials with red,…

Potatoes

There are potato varieties for salads, roasting, boiling, baking and mash – and if you start planting after the danger of frost has passed, you could enjoy them from June…

Cactus

It’s easy to get hooked on cacti as their spiked, ridged, tall, squat and hairy forms are very collectable – especially with children as they are often sold at pocket-money…