by Annelise Brilli | Jun 30, 2022 | Gardening Posts
With borders in full swing, make sure you put your feet up and enjoy them! Image: Dreamstime
Phew! It’s July. Borders are at their peak, but growth is slowing down so you should have time to put your feet up and take some garden notes. Observe what has and hasn’t worked, plants which need dividing and gaps which need filling. Then, after rousing from your recliner to crack on with the ‘Hampton Court Hack’, reward yourself by compiling a greedy wish list of your must-have plants and seeds for next year.
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Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
by Annelise Brilli | Jun 16, 2022 | Gardening Posts
This white tailed bumble bee is enjoying selfheal flowers which have spontaneously popped up in an unmown lawn
Image: Plantlife
Which would you choose? A barren desert wasteland? Or a tapestry of wild flowers teaming with insects, mammals and birds?
Lawns are great for leisure and as a foil to colourful planting, but they are also wildlife wastelands. Just 1% of our countryside is species-rich grassland but Plantlife suggests that ‘with 15 million gardens in Britain, our lawns have the potential to become major sources of nectar’, helping to reverse alarming declines in our insect populations and support a host of other wildlife.
Browse our wildflower seeds for inspiration. You don’t have to lose the lawn completely, but here are three ways to allow some wildness into your lawn, starting with the easiest.
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Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
by Annelise Brilli | May 31, 2022 | Gardening Posts
Image: Canva
In June the garden bursts into an extravagance of flowers and it’s almost impossible to choose amongst them, but here are five of my perennial favourites.
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Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
by Annelise Brilli | May 27, 2022 | Gardening Posts
In June the garden is at its freshest. It’s time to sit back and enjoy long summer evenings surrounded by abundant flowers and lush foliage whilst surveying the results of all your work earlier in the year.
If you worked hard in May, you should already have crossed many of June’s jobs off your list!
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Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
by Annelise Brilli | May 9, 2022 | Gardening Posts, Wildlife
Image: Canva
There has long been an association between fairies and foxgloves. Folklore says that fairies gave the flowers to foxes to wear on their paws so they could tread silently when hunting. There is certainly something magical about their slender spires and they make excellent border plants, lending both romance and an airy architecture to gardens as well as providing ample food for bees. Seed sown in May/June will provide foxglove flowers next year. Or buy established plants now for instant impact this season.
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Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
