Our gardening blog covers a wide variety of topics, including fruit, vegetable and tree stories. Read some of the top gardening stories right here.
Propagation, planting out and cultivation posts from writers that know their subjects well.
These Instagrammers will inspire you to get back to your roots and forage delicious food from the wilderness.
Image source – Shutterstock
If you love country walks, fine food, and communing with nature, give foraging a try. Whether you’re hunting for wild food or wildflowers, there’s plenty of hidden treasure in our countryside. And for a little support or inspiration, here are nine of the best wild-plant Instagrammers to follow.
Some gardens are made to inspire – and here are some inspiring garden blogs
Image: shutterstock
Some gardens and gardening blogs are just too good to not to share, which is why we’ve scoured the web to bring you a bunch of superb blogs that showcase some really special gardens and truly dedicated garden owners and keepers. From the Sussex Weald to craggy Cumbria, here are eight extraordinary garden blogs.
Macmillan Cancer Support’s Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace on 31 January. The event recognised and thanked exceptional volunteers for their life-changing contributions to helping people living with cancer.
The reception focused on the contribution these supporters have made, and celebrated the vital role volunteers play at Macmillan. One of our long serving customer trial members from Seaford, Geoff Stonebanks, was extremely lucky to be one of those invited to attend this prestigious event. Geoff is a local gardener and active fundraiser for the charity through his Driftwood Fundraising Group. Macmillan said that all of those who attended had gone above and beyond their volunteer role.
Geoff raises money for The Macmillan Horizon Centre, over £54000 to date, through events in his own garden, Driftwood, and by single-handedly organising an annual Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail of approximately 25 gardens each year between Brighton and Seaford.
Geoff recounts how he brought the smile to The Prince’s face by telling him of a trick he had picked up for his own garden after a visit to Highgrove a couple of years ago. The Prince has some large urns at the back of the house which were looking a little faded and tired. As Geoff watched on, a couple of gardeners came up with a tractor and trailer loaded with pots of perfectly primed tulips, just about to burst into flower! They lifted out the tired, inner container from the urn and replaced it with one of tulips. Instant impact! This principle is something that Geoff now adopts, not on such a grand scale, in his own award-winning garden each season, where he has over 200 different containers. The Prince smiled.
Image by Paul Burns Photography, Courtesy of Clarence House
Geoff said:
“This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and so totally unexpected. Never ever did I imagine I would visit Buckingham Palace and engage in conversation on one of my favourite pastimes with The Prince of Wales, utterly magical! Thank you, Macmillan!”
Image by Paul Burns Photography, Courtesy of Clarence House
The royal connection does not end there though! Geoff was dumbstruck in January to receive an invitation to The Queen’s Royal Garden Party, also at Buckingham Palace, in June, for his services to the local community in Seaford, where he lives.
You can see Geoff’s own garden and discuss with him the tips he pinched from Highgrove when it opens 8 times for various charities this Summer. You can also see and discuss the plants he will be trialling for Thompson & Morgan too! www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk
I’ve been gardening for as long as I can remember, my first earliest memory being planting seeds in my Grandfather’s prestige flower bed and having a prize lettuce growing there, which he proudly left to show everyone.
Since then, gaining knowledge and experience from both my Grandfather and my Father, I’ve continued to garden, both as a hobby and later on as a professional gardener and landscaper for 12 years. I love all aspects of it, from the design and build, to the planting out of summer borders with plants you’ve either grown from seed or raised from plugs. Unusual varieties always catch my eye and I’m keen to try growing them, even if sometimes it means learning from my mistakes.
So during the barren winter months one has to find other distractions to amuse oneself, such as eating and talking. At a recent lunch party (ooh, get her!) I found myself sitting with a retired geography teacher discussing the advantages and disadvantages of London clay in horticulture. (Cor, mixing in the social circles of North London takes a lot of beating!) Well you could have knocked me down with a feather! Did you know that the Pleistocene ice-sheets really did stop at Henly’s Corner* (which is the junction of the Finchley and North Circular Roads). I don’t know how I lived without that knowledge until now.
Spurred on by this revelation I decided it was high time to get back out there amongst said clay and welcome in the new gardening year. As always I venture out with an open mind, and in my thirst for knowledge I discovered two new techniques:
Talking of gardening techniques, for those of you who are yoga junkies like wot I am, here are a few adaptations to poses that may come in handy whilst working in your garden:
Seriously though, after a couple of invigorating spring cleaning sessions in the brisk winter sunshine I am delighted to report that I have got my enthusiasm back. The garden has been tamed into submission; at least, I don’t cringe whenever I step outside now. (Look straight ahead, avoid eye contact with patio cannas, last year’s foliage hanging on like tattered rags.)
Day length is noticeably longer. Iris reticulata, winter aconites, crocus and snowdrops are blooming. Hellebores are in flower. Buds are swelling everywhere. Don’t you just love the tight, bright new shoots clustering in profusion on previously barren stems? Only trouble now is holding myself back from pruning less robust shrubs like fuchsia, abelia & hydrangea.
Looking forward, my T & M trial seeds have arrived! I’m being more realistic this year, trying to stick to plants I know I can grow – not into pushing the boundaries, too much like hard work – and at least I shall have something to report!
Incidentally the Green Bin Men still haven’t been; that’s 7 weeks and counting. I put ours out last night (the bin, not the men…although.….) in eager anticipation, neighbours following suit shortly afterwards on the assumption that my being The Gardener on our road, I must be In “The Know”. No show. Am not even sure that the Bin Men know when they should return.
I leave you now with a caution: Refrain from thinking spring is on its way as it usually snows on Feb 20th.
*HENLY’S CORNER – IN THE ICE AGE By Helen O’Brien
What has become almost a local folk legend was confirmed recently (Blogger’s Note: 1979 actually. Still, extremely recent in the grand scheme of things) by the Geological Museum, in answer to a query prompted by current road improvement proposals. But the Finchley glacier did not, as popularly believed, come from the last glaciation but from a much earlier one, approximately a quarter of a million years ago – known, in English terminology, as the Anglian advance; or as the Mindel glaciation in the European Alpine sequence.
Caroline Broome has been gardening for more than 20 years. Having passed the RHS General Certificate, she has since developed her East Finchley garden into a “personal paradise” that she and her husband invite the public to visit each year via the National Garden Scheme. Learn more about our contributor using T&M’s ‘Meet the experts’ page.
Hoorah, my seed potatoes have arrived and are safely set out in egg boxes on the window sill. I have just used the last of last years crop which kept beautifully in the frost free shed. The onions from last season are still going well with no sign of any shooting or rot as are the Shallots and garlic. The pots of crocus I planted last autumn are in bloom and looking very colourful on the conservatory window sill on sunny days when they open out fully.
Outside in the garden there are jobs to be getting on with when the weather permits. Pulling weeds is easy when the ground is soft and I carry a small plank about with me to prevent compacting the soil when I walk on it. I have had to put extra netting around my purple sprouting broccoli as the word has gone out around the local pigeon population and they sit on the tops of the plants and pick out the ‘sprouts’.
All the broad beans have come through the worst of the weather and I shall go out and tie them in to the sticks this week as they will soon start growing taller as the days lengthen. The autumn planted garlic bulbs have all come through and have a good 8 inches of growth on top and the shallots planted at the same time are greening up as well. Promises of good things to come.
Out in the flower garden the snowdrops and aconites are looking splendid and the Winter Sweet is in full flower giving off a gorgeous perfume by the front arch as everyone walks by. A flower arrangement of Christmas Box (sarcococca) and snowdrops in the house fills the room with a wonderful scent and lasts for a week.
The chickens have made good use of the fruit cage and have been scratching around the bushes picking out slugs and bugs. They will only have a few more weeks before they have to be excluded as the buds on the currant and gooseberry bushes are swelling already and there is nothing the girls like better than a juicy bud.
I have had my hands in soil ever since I could crawl. I remember well going out into the garden and watching my Father double digging the vegetable plot and being shown how to pick caterpillars off the brassicas. You could say he was an early organic gardener. There was something nice about sneaking round behind the outhouse and pulling rhubarb and dipping it in sugar, picking raspberries and stuffing handfuls into my mouth. It is these memories of taste and smell that never leave you and make you want to grow your own fresh fruit and vegetables.
It has been something of a treat then, to find myself working for Thompson and Morgan for the past 13 years and being able to help customers to solve their gardening problems
There’s more to pro gardening than just secateurs
Image: shutterstock
Looking for a bit of gardening inspiration? It’s always nice to know that the hints and tips your favourite garden bloggers pass on are backed up by some verifiable gardening know how. We’ve scoured the web to bring you the scribblings of ten professional gardeners – blogs from green-fingered pros with skills and knowledge to share.
Hi all,
If you read my last blog you’ll know I was talking about the different types of gardeners we all are. Since then I’ve been doing some thinking and I’ve had my performance review at work and I’m now working towards becoming a fruit loop! I’d like to learn more about fruit growing, training and harvesting right through to the products we can make with the harvest.
I bought my self a steam juicer in the summer last year to have a go at doing grape juice. I can highly recommend it to anyone! Its so easy to use and all you have to do is stand and watch then pour it into sterilised bottles. I can’t wait to do more from the vineyard this year!
So, after my performance review it just so happened that there were some formative winter pruning workshops on apples and pears that we could go on. I jumped at the chance and four of us went last weekend to a scattered orchard near Ipswich to be taught how to do things properly.
Now being a trained horticulturalist doesn’t mean you know it all, it shows you how little you do actually know. I’ve always gone along the general rule of thumb of pruning no more than a third off a well-trained fruit tree in the winter and you have to get the perfect bowl shape from a neglected tree straight away. It was really interesting to find out that the process of gaining a bowl in your tree is much better to be done over successional years and not to take off more than 10% of the tree.
This is down to the levels of Auxin hormone in the tree balanced against the Abscissic acid levels. Auxin is the growth hormone stored in roots in winter and Abscissic acid is a growth inhibitor hormone mainly in the plant tips. If you take away more than 10% on a Bramley apple tree or other vigorously growing fruit or 20% of the growth of other trees, of the over all tree the amount of Abscissic acid is reduced enough that the Auxin rushes to the cut sight in spring causing a mass of water shoots to be produced because all the embryonic cells aren’t being inhibited by the stunting hormone that is in the growth tips. By hacking loads off your tree to ‘start again will actually do more harm than good and it could end up looking like an unwoven wicker basket.
It was really interesting to find this out and it is only recently that it has been explored to reduce the tree little by little over a few years actually has a better overall impact on the tree and its production that attacking it and making it how we want it straight away. With all that in mind I will now try and tell you how to prune your trees. No tree is the same so I won’t be giving you any pictures to look at. It is recommended that you do a winter prune anytime between December and the end of March.
Take a little time to get to know your tree, it will definitely be worth it in the end. It’s really made a difference in how I’m looking at the trees we have at work rather than going full throttle straight into getting the perfect shape first off. Thinking about it, a couple of years to us seems a long while but when trees can live for hundreds of years, a couple of years is nothing to them.
If you have any questions please ask and I will do my best to help you.
Smile,
Lesley
I’m a 23 year old female horticulturalist. I studied at Easton College for two years until June 2014 and became self employed providing garden care and design in North Norfolk. I currently care for around 20 gardens and have now achieved a few designs and a small landscaping project.
I am passionate about getting young people, especially primary schools, involved in gardening again. I have a project running to do with children’s gardening, so if you’d like to know more please get in touch! I began because of spending so much time in the garden with my granddad as a child. I was also a member of my primary school’s environment club.
I am a fan of Michael Perry and James Wong and I love finding out about edible flowers and how to live more independently from my own garden.
Hello Gardeners,
I can’t quite believe this will be my fourth year writing for T&M. I have learned so much more about writing blogs as well as gardening over the years. I’ve shared my ups and downs with you, and formed many friendships with the blogging community. One of things I love is your interactions, a little message on my page really does make me smile.
Each year I start off by promising to write more factual and interesting pieces, but by May, all I am focused on is telling you how this or that is faring. So this year I added a new blog called “Rake to Bake,” where I will attempt to encourage you (not that many of you need it…) to try something new with your edibles. Did anyone make the Parsnip Scones? I recently modified the recipe to include sprouts as well as parsnips – all I can say is I am very sorry for the unusual high winds the UK is experiencing.
I must be the only blogger here who has not abandoned the winter garden. I haven’t done any work, but I have watched Mark tidy up. My job is to examine the plot by walking around taking photos, tracking the pattern of the sun and sighing at the wind damage. I spend time laughing at the antics of the birds that don’t mind coming to feed at the table when I’m watering the plants in the greenhouse. Finally when I come in from the cold it is usually sees me getting pens and paper to draw fancy plans for where I plan to put things. Then on a day that is far too bitter to go out I revise the plans or draw them up again.
Due to my ineptness for the last three years I have put the bee hotel facing west. It was only when I read an update from The Bumble Bee Trust that I realised the poor bees would not move in, unless I repositioned it. I also noted that Bees don’t nest at too high a level, so about a foot off the ground for the hotel is just as effective as head height. In case you are wondering I have a Bee obsession, I would love to have bee hives, unfortunately Mark is allergic to their sting, so I’ll just have to settle for feeding them instead.
The greenhouses are ticking over, inside “The Office” nothing new has germinated this month, except for what could possibly be a new lavender. The odd frosty nights have seen most of the seedlings go dormant. I only need to keep the compost moist and ventilate on warmer days. There are a few pots of violas that smell divine and have been flowering for over a month. I’m itching to start off my sweetpeas, but the gales mean it’s too unsafe to be in the greenhouse for more than a quick five minute check.
In “Ty Mawr” the peppers and chillies seem to have survived the winter, although Mark forgot to water them, so I nearly lost them. The English Marigolds have really shot up, and even though some of the same batch are flowering outside the ones under glass have not. Curiously, the plants inside are much larger, and I am assuming this is because they are warmer and drier. The cornflowers did not like the cold, nor the lack of regular watering, but they have picked up over the last few days. Incredibly the Nicotiana is still flowering – I expected it to die off between Christmas and now, but no it just keeps going. (Hope I haven’t jinxed it.) The turnip looks like it could be ready soon. The garlic bulbs died. The stored dahlias have not rotted, the baby money trees need repotting.
I ordered and received my onion seeds at the start of the month. Followed closely by an offer on seed potatoes. By placing an order for Maris Piper I was able to order a trial sample of the new Vizella potato variety for the bargain price of £1.99 and potato fertiliser for 50p. They also came with a free packet of mint seeds, perfect for a late spring/early summer salad. I have started the chitting process, hopefully I can plant them mid February, that’s the beauty of living by the coast – less frost. I had to leave my cold frame in the large greenhouse due to the fact it keeps going off on its own accord every time the wind picks up, scattering its contents here, there and everywhere. The last time it went off on one it ended up from being in a sheltered spot by the bench in front of the bungalow to almost putting itself in the shed round the back.
I’ve set up my electric propagator on the kitchen window, I’ve planted seven types of seeds, so far nothing has grown, but it takes 7-21 days so I’m not worried yet. I am planning to write more about the propagator at a later date.
As January is traditionally a time to look both forward and back, here is a short summary of my past actions and new plans:-
I introduced myself and asked you to share a year in the greenhouse with me. Everything from the construction of the greenhouse to the last produce of the year. I wrote about the importance of keeping a gardening diary, (something I still do today), and I told you that I couldn’t grow cucumbers. – I still can’t grow them…
I started the year by explaining the rookie mistakes I made with a bigger greenhouse, I complained about my Labrynthitis, I was ecstatic I had grown Californian poppies. I noticed that we had plenty of blue skies in in early 2016. I bought hanging shelves for Ty Mawr, and I was excited to try out the seeds I had won for blogger of the month the previous December.
Full of optimism I wrote this :- “The first thing I learned this year is how powerful plants can be. During my final session of chemotherapy, I decided to google what goes into the drugs that are saving my life. Cabol is synthetic and therefore uninteresting, but Taxol, as the name suggests, is derived from the Pacific Yew tree…” “…It (Taxol) also contains poisonous plant alkaloids from the periwinkle (Vinca Major) and the American wild mandrake, commonly known as the May Apple. Plus it has extracts from the Asian Happy tree – a 40 meter giant that is also grown in Canada.”
I went on to talk about the plans for my grassy knoll area the Orange coloured garden flowers I would grow, and the plans to help mum rejuvenate her front space. I stated my brother still hadn’t put his greenhouse up.”
A month after I wrote the blog, I had my surgery and just as I was returning to work six months later, I had a blood clot in my heart leaving me with Heart Failure.
Through all of these setbacks the greenhouses and garden kept me sane, the act of planting a seed and watching it grow enabled me to be determined to go on. I didn’t want to die without tasting the new variety tomatoes, or seeing the dahlias bloom.
I have many plans, I might not achieve them, but here they are –
But I know as well as anyone that things do not always go according to plan, so my all time favourite thing to do this year is to just enjoy being in the greenhouse whenever I can.
Until next time,
Happy Gardening.
Love Amanda.
My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.
It has been just over a year ago that I was elected to become the Show Secretary of my local horticultural society. At the age of 22, I believe I may be one of the youngest Show Secretary’s ever! Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year in the role.
The first job of the year is to compile the Show Schedule for the year ahead. The Show Schedule includes, among other things, social event dates, show dates and show details. New for this year was some sponsorship from a local garden centre. This boosted the society funds as well as covering the costs of printing the Show Schedule. I carefully went through page by page making the alterations necessary. At the same time I wanted to ensure that I did not change too much too quickly. I was pleased with the finished result given I had never done anything like it before.
As I discussed in my previous blog part of my new role involved running the annual seed potato growing competition. For 2017, I managed to secure sponsorship of the competition from Thompson & Morgan. With their help we had nearly three times the number of potato bags returned compared to the year before. I would consider the potato competition to be the highlight of my first year as Show Secretary.
Our first major show of the year is our Summer Show in June. This takes a good deal of organisation beforehand from the advertising, judge booking and setting up of the hall itself. The judge was impressed with the exhibits on show given we are a small village society. The show was also well received by the visiting public. The one mistake I made was booking a family holiday for the same week. After the show was all packed up I headed up to Norfolk to join the rest of family. I will be sure to check the diary next year!
The biggest event in the Show Secretary’s calendar is the Autumn Show in September. Having shown for a few years now this day is stressful enough as an exhibitor. This year I had the added pressure of also running the day as well. Being organised was the key to success of the day. To my amazement we had 242 entries. This is the most entries we have had in at least 10 years. In fact there was so much to judge the judging finished just as the doors opened to the public! The whole day made me proud to be a part of such a thriving horticultural society.
I have learned an awful lot from my first year on the job. I would also like to thank all of those who have helped and supported me throughout the year. One of the biggest challenges I have faced is not changing too much too soon. My main goal is to try and encourage more young people to get involved with growing and showing. Having thoroughly enjoyed my first year I look forward to learning from my mistakes and building on the successes in 2018.
My name is Thomas Carpenter and I live in Essex. At my home I have a vegetable patch and greenhouse where I grow a range of flowers and vegetables for both the show bench and for eating. I am the Show Secretary for my local horticultural society and have been a member there for the last eight years. Currently I am in training with the Essex Guild of Horticultural Judges and the National Vegetable Society. I have a real passion for growing and showing vegetables as well as encouraging children and young people to get involved with horticulture.
I’ve been off for a bit, from the garden that is. Don’t suppose I’m the only one either. I mean – ugh – just look at it out there. The cold, grey months of Winter are here, still hanging around like overstaying party guests who can’t take the hint. I’ve tried tapping my watch, breezily declaring “Oh is that the time already?” but apparently you can’t chivvy along the eternal cycle of the seasons by appealing to its sense of social embarrassment. Bit annoying.
So, from under a blanket, you peer outside. From my particular blanketside location in south Leicestershire, I offer you an endless greyscape of drizzle, sleet and murk. Snowfall so sudden it stoved in the coldframe roof. No? Then may I offer you a sludgy brownscape of heavy clay, lashed with punishing winds. Still not taken? Alright, just close the curtains, pretend it never happened, and have a mince pie and some sloe gin. After all, it is just gone 4 in the afternoon and it’s pitch black so there’s nothing to see anyway.
If you’re one of those people with an incredible memory, you might recall my last blog a few months ago about making sloe gin. This is the end result, bottled up and actually really quite good. Not too sweet, plummy and pleasantly warming, in case you’re wondering.
Anyway, I came across a quote I liked today: ‘All gardening is landscape painting’. Serial gardening and architectural 18th century overachiever William Kent said it. He’s the one who, amongst many other triumphs, designed Stowe Landscape Garden which isn’t that far from here and is just a little bit jaw dropping.
To contrast, our garden right now is not so much painterly and picturesque, more so The Scream.
The ground is boggy, full on welly-sucking clay. Plants, bare and brown. If you’ve ever had one of those paint colour charts from a DIY store, we’re in that muted and little visited section, a world away from the vibrant, partying, good time reds and yellows. You know the kind, where it’s not called ‘Battleship Grey’, it’s inexplicably something like ‘Stoat’s Whisper’ or ‘Sad Robin’.
Even the gloriously bright berries of the Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ which blazed around Christmas have been pecked clear by the birds (speaking of which, do feed the birds in winter – they will love you for it).
There is one redeeming plant though, happily. A stubbornly joyous clump of Winter Jasmine by the gate, which in an unusual feat of forwards planning, I’d pushed into the ground a few years ago exactly there where I would see it from the kitchen window during Winter. It radiates happiness and warmth, and it’s making me look ahead to the Spring.
Be gone, mince pies and murk. Even you, Sad Robin.
So, let’s plan and dream a bit of Spring. The garden, even if it doesn’t look like it right now, is actually pretty full of plants. It’s not dead really, just dormant, preserving life deep in roots ready for a rise in temperature.
Maybe, like me, you’re recently had a bunch of plant and seed catalogues plop through the door (it’s as if the marketing people are on to something, right?). There are some tempting things to be seen online too.
I am going to apply Restraint, Self-Control and a Strict Budget so have set a modest five-item limit. I’m still clicking around like a kid at a pick and mix counter, and am drawn to the hot colour groups:
Looks like I already have a couple of items already cached in the shopping basket from the last time I was daydreaming about sunshine. A blackcurrant (‘Big Ben’) and a redcurrant (‘Rovada’). Hang on though, a free set of strawberry plants with my order you say? Hmmn. Could be tempted.
I’ve lived in various places from freezing flats in Manchester with just enough room to swing a pot rubber plant, to a Leicester semi which must have held some kind of local record for most concrete used in the garden. That took some digging out. Now living in Market Harborough with husband Matt and two young daughters. And a cat who shows up for mealtimes. Gardening neophyte, learning always.