by Mark Delaney | Feb 2, 2018 | Blogs we love, Gardening Posts
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.
Pro gardener Jack takes some inspiration from the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Image: Jack Wallington
Jack’s rock garden may consist of just the one rock – and not even a real rock at that, but it’s worth a look because it’s just the sort of quirky personal growing project you’d expect from an RHS qualified horticulturist who specialises in creating contemporary gardens with unique plantings.
The Sempervivums are just about hanging in there but what’s really required is a bit of moss to provide the growing media for other plant species to grow into. An entertaining and informative blog, there’s so much interesting reading here, a quick visit could last hours.
If you’d like to see how someone takes a patch of barren, sloping seaside garden and turns it into a major attraction on the National Open Gardens Scheme calendar, you’ve come to the right place. Aided by a small army of volunteers, Geoff Stonebanks now opens his garden to the public to raise money for charity – raising nearly £100K for a variety of charities, including MacMillan Cancer Support.
We think you’ll agree Geoff’s patch is a heck of a garden, and a must-visit-site for anyone growing in harsh salt-laden conditions near the sea. The great Monty Don himself describes Geoff’s East Sussex garden as “a small garden by the sea that’s full of character”.
Let Graham help you whip your fruit trees into shape with some winter pruning
Image: Pulling weeds
“Trees put out shoots in all directions, which can lead to them becoming quite congested.” Says professional gardener, Graham Wright. If you’re in need of a quick lesson on the art of pruning your fruit trees, here’s a good place to start. With his quince tree doing just that, he’s waited until the dormant time of the year to get his secateurs out.
What you should be looking for is an open shape, Graham says. This lets the most light into the centre of the tree, which is essential if your fruit is to ripen properly. The quince jelly’s on you then Graham.
Buddlejas make an excellent border plant – just remember to prune vigorously
Image: David Domoney
If you’re looking for some low maintenance outdoor plants to help get a beginner gardener off the ground, you’ve come to the right place. TV gardener extraordinaire, David Domoney gives his top five recommendations. He says: “Buddlejas are great for putting into beds and borders if you have recently moved to a place with a larger garden or are branching out from container planting.”
Presenter of ITV’s Love Your Garden, and the resident gardening expert for This Morning, David’s blog is a superb resource for anyone interested in gardening or wildlife. Fancy testing your knowledge of British birds? Why not take David’s fun quiz?
Looking for something a little different to brighten up your spring garden? Take a look at these Snake’s Head Fritillaries nodding their, chequered purple and white, bell-shaped blooms. Most bulbs like free-draining soils says Dennis, aka the tattooed gardener, but not this one, which makes it perfect for wetter conditions.
Former head gardener at Trinity College, Cambridge, Dennis is now a gardener, garden consultant and children’s writer. His blog is a font of gardening knowledge and wisdom, with tats and the odd bit of Megadeth thrown in for good measure.
This nandina goes from green to pink to bright red
Image: Mr Plant geek
“Every so often, a plant comes along that makes you question whether it’s actually real or not,” says gardening expert (and former T&M Product Development Manager) Michael Perry. He’s talking about the pillar box red leaves of the unbelievably riotous nandina (pink blush) – a low maintenance foliage plant you’ll love for its year-round colour.
Well-written and quirky, you’ll enjoy Michael’s unique take on gardening. As he says, he’s just a tiny bit lazy, which makes him an excellent source of gardening hacks and shortcuts. Check out his post on “wabi-sabi” – the art of imperfect gardening, which is all about relaxed simplicity and asymmetry.
How would you fancy having a Dingly Dell in your garden? Garden designer and developer, Judi will build one for you. We’re talking about the ultimate place to relax and unwind, created especially for you.
A former dancer and choreographer Judi says she loves to put on her creative hat to help her clients unmuddle their ideas and make an exciting plan for their outdoor spaces. You’ll love what she’s done with the olive tree at one satisfied customer’s garden.
Kids will love creating a mini pond to attract wildlife to the garden
Image: Katie Rushworth
You’ll know Katie Rushworth as one of the team from ITV’s Love Your Garden. Here she blogs about her love of gardening, and offers the occasional tidbit of behind the scenes insight from the show.
Check out Katie’s ideas for creating a kids’ mini pond for the garden. She says “A small container pond can be a fantastic way to welcome wildlife and get your little ones involved in a quick and easy project that will bring joy for years to come! “. Katie’s blog is a treasure trove of helpful advice for gardeners, complete with recipes to help you use up your bumper crops.
Thomas demonstrates how to move well-established plantings
Image: Thomas D Stone
If you’ve ever wondered how to move well-established shrubs from the wrong place in your garden to somewhere better, Thomas Stone says it’s all about getting the root ball out of the ground. Not sure how to go about it? Check out his post which gives you a handy step-by-step process to make a success of your transplantation.
With nearly 30 years as an RHS trained professional gardener behind him, Thomas says the key to keeping his passion for gardening alive, is never to stop learning. That’s good news for his readers – there’s a wealth of gardening knowhow waiting for you here.
Gardening can be hard on your back, but not when you follow pro’ gardener, horticultural TV and radio presenter, and blogger Ellen Mary’s advice to go vertical with your planting. From reusing soft drinks bottles to raised beds and making planters from pipes, she’ll soon raise your gardening sights – and if you want to extend your menus, this is the place to start learning about edible flowers!
A self-confessed gardening addict, Ellen Mary is a trustee of Anglia in Bloom, and horticultural coordinator for the Royal Norfolk Show. We don’t know how she finds the time to pack in all her gardening-related occupations. She says, “If the job is to do with gardening – anything goes!”
Do you have a favourite pro’ gardening blog we’ve missed? We’d love to hear from you. Just head on over to our Facebook page and tell us all about it.
by Mark Delaney | Dec 13, 2017 | Blogs we love, Gardening Posts
The winter gardens at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, are just one of the hundreds of gardens to visit in the UK
Here’s your chance to take a stroll around some fabulous gardens without leaving the comfort of your home. We’ve scoured the web to come up with some intrepid garden adventurers – bloggers who like to get out and about – read on to find out where they’ve been.
Blogger Alison pauses at the delightful Italian village at Portmeirion. Built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1920s, the village nestles in the beautiful estuary of the River Dwyryd, in Gwynedd, is normally a tranquil spot, but when this garden blogger stayed there recently, another visitor, Storm Brian, was making his presence felt.
“We holed up in our cottage, lit the log burner and waited for it to blow over”, says Alison. But not before she took some very atmospheric snaps of the village and the stunning woodland of Gwyllt, in which it’s set. The writer behind Blackberry Garden shares her life as a self-confessed gardening obsessive – check out her irritating plant of the month strand – Dahlia Waltzing Matilda is really annoying.
Kipling build this pond and path with the proceeds from his 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Image: Carrots & Calendula
Take a trip to Batemans, the Sussex home of the late Rudyard Kipling, with gardening writer Ciar and her three children who, all being under 10, she calls her “Little Weeds”. Ciar says while Batemans isn’t the biggest National Trust home, it’s always worth a visit.
The kids loved the fairy trail based on Arthur Rackham’s illustrations of Kipling’s fairy tales. Ciar says: “They were soon searching for pishogues, goblins and sprites and were delighted to discover a little fairy house under a Japanese Maple.” With its yew hedges and winding paths, Ciar says it’s no wonder Kipling found inspiration to write there.
If you’re a Londoner, or visiting the Big Smoke, you’re sure to feel the need for some sanctuary from all the hustle and bustle of the capital. Luckily, novelist, blogger and one time Canterbury laureate, Sarah Salway, has found the perfect spot.
Sarah tells us the The Phoenix Garden is a minute off London’s Charing Cross Road and just two minutes away from Tottenham Court Road. If it’s anything like its photos, you’ll love it, and best of all, she says, it’s just across the road from a book shop, and so perfect for when you want to dip into a new read in peace.
More than a visitor, professional gardener and blogger Lou recently took up the challenge of becoming head gardener at Ulting Wick, an experimental private garden called Ulting Wick in the Chelmer Valley in rural Essex.
Created from the ruins of an old farmyard, the garden is part of the National Garden Scheme, but why wait for the next chance to visit in person when you can take a peek for yourself over at Lou’s blog? If her photos are anything to go by, you’ll fall in love with the place just as she has.
If formality is your thing, check out writer Naomi Schillinger’s post in which she revisits a trip she took to Amsterdam some years ago – you’ll love her photos of immaculately trimmed box parterres which she says was a recurrent theme. Naomi blogs about box because there’s a problem we should all be aware of: Box blight.
If you’re worried about blight, or indeed caterpillars nibbling your box, Naomi offers some possible solutions. She says if all else fails, “Ilex crenata (Japanese Holly) and Lonicera nitida are now being promoted by hedging companies.” Not sure? When Naomi visited Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, she was “really inspired by their parterres”.
Instead of visiting other people’s gardens have you considered opening your own garden to the general public? If so, blog contributor, multi gardening-award winner Geoff Stonebanks has some tips to help you make it a success – his advice – go for lots of pots which are easily replaced if a plant dies or is destroyed by the weather.
Richard Jackson is a TV gardening expert of two decades experience – he currently appears on QVC – and his stable of top horticultural writing talent includes Telegraph gardening correspondent Jean Vernon, Chartered Institute of Horticulture’s Young Horticulturist of the Year in May 2016, Lawrence Wright, and many more.
“Surrey despite being commuter belt is the county with the highest concentration of trees in the UK,” says the pen behind The Garden Gate is Open. No wonder a visit to National Garden Scheme venue, Timber Hill near Chobham revealed a treasure trove of mature trees, as well as many other wonderful plantings.
We particularly love this writer’s inclusion in their writeup of their visit to Timber Hill, the many toadstools they discovered – a rare delight which demonstrates just how fascinating fungi are. The Garden Gate is one blogger’s self-challenge to visit 90 gardens in 2017. Doubt they’ll do it? Timber Hill was visit number 85.
Tag along as writer and blogger Non Morris takes you to the National Trust’s magical Plas-yn-Rhiw on the Llŷn Peninsula. The run-down 17th century stone manor house and gardens were acquired by the unmarried Keating sisters, Eileen, Lorna and Honora at the outbreak of the World War Two.
When they bought it, the place was so overgrown that to view the house, the sisters had to climb through the window. Undeterred the Keatings slowly transformed and extended the gardens and grounds which now cover some 400 acres. “There is so much luxuriant green,” says Non, who was bowled over by the haunting beauty of the place – you will be too.
Do you blog about your garden visits? If so we’d love to hear from you – just drop us a line via our Facebook page.
by Mark Delaney | Oct 30, 2017 | Blogs we love, Gardening Posts, Vegetables
Take some tips from these amazing bloggers about growing veg!
Image: shutterstock
Say goodbye to tasteless supermarket produce by growing your own delicious nutritious fruit and veggies. To help show you how, we’ve hunted down some of the best vegetable gardening blogs around.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a sprawling allotment, or a scrubby patch of urban garden – here’s the inspiration and insight you need to help you on your way.
John Harrison has 40 years worth of experience to share on his blog.
Image: shutterstock
To help you get your veg plot started, blogger John gives you all the advice you need. You’ll get growing tips categorised by month and vegetable, and for extra inspiration, a vegetable show growing section. Check out John’s pics and step-by-step instructions for growing prize-winning onions, potatoes, and more.
With 40 years gardening experience under his belt, you can be sure John knows his stuff. He says gardening is: “healthy exercise without having to pay for a gym or run around in circles and you get to eat healthy fruit and vegetables without all those pesticide residues.” Give this blog a try.
With two years of allotment gardening behind her, blogger Sarah says, “grab a spade and have a go, if we can do it, then there’s not many that can’t.” An inspirational read, you’ll love Sarah’s 10 reasons to garden even if it’s raining – for starters, she says, you get to enjoy a cosy cuppa in the shed…
Bitten by the gardening bug, Sarah and her family now tend three plots. “A bit of planning’s in order”, says Sarah. If you’re in the same boat, check out her list of at-home allotment tasks – it’s a great place to start.
Jane Merrick’s ultimate planting tip? Garlic.
Image: Her Outdoors
Got a plot but can’t decide what to grow? Take Jane Merrick’s advice and plant garlic. The Independent columnist and Britain’s Best Allotment judge says: “If the conditions are right, it’s easy to produce a decent crop.” Plus, it’ll make you feel productive over the winter.
A blog that’s busting with excellent hints and tips, beginners will love Jane’s advice on embarking on your first allotment. And for more experienced gardeners, we recommend Jane’s post on dealing with weedy paths – the woodchip really does look great.
Healing and life-affirming, gardening changed Belinda’s life.
Image: Plot 7 Marsh Lane
Gardening was the perfect route back to full health for kidney transplant recipient, Belinda. Now her blog is an inspiring and informative resource for anyone who loves life in the garden.
Need some crop rotation ideas? Belinda’s scheme includes diagrams to help you decide where to plant everything from broad beans to parsnips. You’ll also love her wildlife section in which she gives the lowdown on the bugs, birds and animal visitors to the allotment.
Our Smallholding Adventure is the “frugal journey from street house to small holding, fast food to self sufficiency and shop bought to homemade” for the Chadfield family.
With lots of fruit and veg to use from their smallholding,Tracy’s posts about preserving produce are sure to be of interest. As she says: “It’s a really satisfying feeling preserving seasonal produce that we’ve grown right here!” It looks delicious, too.
Check out Tracy’s quick and easy sweet chilli sauce and the homemade strawberry vodka! And with the winter fast approaching, her elderberry winter tonic looks pretty good too…
Dan grows some delicious veg on his Yorkshire allotment.
Image: Allotment Diary
Ever wondered about the dedication it takes to grow a 10lb onion? Let blogger Dan take you through the process step-by-step from sowing to harvesting as he tries to break the 10lb barrier.
Dan keeps a diary of everything he grows, which is a great source of gardening information, and check out his YouTube channel too. We love the idea of planting your peas in lengths of guttering. It means you can “germinate them indoors and slide the plants out into the beds when they’re big enough”. What a great labour saver.
Veg gardener Alison is hooked on perennial vegetables like kale, sea beets, artichokes and sorrel, and once you read her blog you will be too. As she says, they’re the ‘perfect edible plants for a busy lifestyle!’ Less work than traditional veg, they even keep producing during the winter.
Ever heard of skirret? This long-forgotten Tudor veg is one of Alison’s current crops. She shares what she’s learned growing it over the past years, as well as this top tip – use it in stew! She says it’s ‘best part of the dish, so satisfying with their sweet taste and potato-like texture.’
A small yield of potatoes, but a big yield of advice from the Carrot Tops Allotment.
Image: Carrot Tops Allotment
Protect your beans and peas! This year, the Carrot Tops allotment plot came under attack from weevils. That meant holey veg leaves for blogger Adam, but the good news is, he always shares his experiences so you won’t make the same mistakes. He says start by covering your bean with fleece or cloches to help the plants outgrow any damage.
Adam’s blog runs the full gardening gamut from how to help bees to a recipe for a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese icing. And for keen composters, his top 10 composting tips reveal some good ideas – like adding paper.
The rainbow chard grown by the folks at the Rainbow Chard blog!
Image: Rainbow Chard
Wondering what to plant after your tomatoes are finished? Organic allotmenteer Lou recommends salads like winter purslane to keep your greenhouse or coldframe producing even as the weather cools.
Pop over to Rainbow Chard every week for photos and a rundown of the happenings on this organic allotment in Norwich, along with great ideas for what to cook with your homegrown veg, like this vegetable toad in the hole. And do check out the ‘monster green butternut squash’ – a beast at 16lbs, a real monster.
Is your garden more derelict that delectable? Jonathan Wallace knows how you feel. But over the past 10 years, he’s transformed the space in his ongoing “battle to be self-sufficient”.
It’s hard graft, Jonathan says, but it’s working. Today, he has livestock, bee colonies, and a thriving garden that produces more veg than you can shake a shovel at. Tune in to watch Jonathan’s videos in which he discusses a wide range of topics from making pigeon burgers to cherry-rhubarb jam and more.
You don’t need much space to grow delicious vegetables, says Matron. She says to prioritise climbers which will “make their own space up against the wall.” Runner beans, tomatoes, and squash are all grow well in her courtyard veg garden.
Inheriting a ‘dig for victory’ mentality from her parents, Matron has always loved gardening and her blog is a treasure trove of useful and unusual tips. If you can get your hands on some fresh walnuts, her step-by-step guide to how to pickle them is a must-read.
If you’ve got budding young gardeners at home, this is the blog for you. Having grown up on a farm, today, Kev is a carpenter, homesteader, and at-home dad to his three kids.
About self-reliant family living, Kev’s kids help him forage for blackberries, collect eggs, and can now even identify edible wild foods by sight. He says, “they’re building skills and hopefully a work ethic which will last them a lifetime.” This is a top read – you’ll love his tips on making the most of a courgette glut, and dealing with rabbits evading a rabbit-proof fence…
Avid gardener Caro Shrives is part of a group that works to revitalise the overgrown gardens of the historic 1930s flats in North London where she lives.
Nurturing the community, as well as a mini orchard, Caro posts pics of the gardens from yesteryear, as well as in-progress shots of the current plots. It’s a gardening journey through history and one that’s sure to inspire.
While it’s now more of a solo project, it’s one Caro loves. Her passion for gardening is contagious – and particularly of interest to anyone involved in shared gardening.
Have we missed any of your favourite veggie gardening blogs? If so, we’d love to hear from you – please get in touch via or Facebook page.
by Sue Russell | Aug 22, 2017 | Gardening Posts, Vegetables, Your Stories
One of my earliest memories is of helping my Mum and Dad weed the veggie plot and collecting chicken eggs from the chooks at the end of the garden. I grew up on a farm as a child and always had my own piece of land to grow and learn with, so I suppose it’s in the blood!
In my mid twenties, I re trained in Horticulture (Professional Gardening ANCH) and set up my own Gardening business working for clients in the Suffolk/Essex area. For the last thirteen years I’ve had the pleasure of working on a private twenty five acre estate tending to the grounds.
My work:
This year I’ve grown everything from seed on the estate. I wanted different and above all tasty and engaging fruits and veg.
In the greenhouse this year I’ve grown Harbinger, Terenzo and Red Cherry, three different types of toms, slicing and cooking with the Harbinger and a little snacking tomato, appropriately named Cherry Red and also the Terenzo which is hanging basket variety.
Also cucumber Swing, which hasn’t stopped producing and has a great taste, two types of Aubergine, Bonica and Orlando. I tried Aubergines a few years ago, they didn’t come to anything and the Woodlice enjoyed eating them before they were ready for humans.
In the veggie plot, are Courgette – Parador and Eclipse. I wanted a break away from the regular, (boring!) courgettes, so this year, yellow and green and round. Lovely flavours too, tonight I added the yellow to a veggie Spaghetti Bolognese which we all tucked into, ending with clean plates all round, great way to get it into the kiddies!!
Runner beans are in pots this year with six canes in each, I tried two varieties, Scarlet Emperor and Desiree, thought these two were good to try with each having different coloured flowers and growing in pots means they are transportable!
At home:
One wet spring afternoon after visiting Waitrose and enjoying our free hot beverages, the kids raided my seed box and chose seeds they fancied growing to sow in the empty cups, (a good way to recycle). They sat on my kitchen window sill to grow, the children checked every day to see who’s grew first and then we transplanted their seedlings. The Rudbeckia looks superb on the patio and will be planted into the garden in the autumn.
There is definitely something to be said for encouraging children at a young age, especially nowadays with so much focus on five a day and healthy eating and children finding out where and how their food grows.
I haven’t grown as much as I would really like to this but I did try Chilli Pepper Numex Twilight which was new for me, love chillies, great to be picking and cooking from garden to kitchen within seconds.
Once thing that never makes it into the kitchen though are our peas, we all sow them all together, watch them grow and when ready sit on the patio and eat them. A few are left now to save the seeds for next year’s annual pea sowing.
I wanted to know what all the fuss was about with Begonia Apricot Shades, to be fair I was in Monty Don’s camp with the dislike of these plants. But reluctantly I gave them a go, a few crept into the baskets and pots and they are ok, won’t say I love them just yet!
I am impressed with my patio Vicky Plum though, my favourite plum! Bought it last year and last week William (my eight year old son) and I shared the first one. Simply divine.
Looking ahead to next year, as I mentioned through the good and the bad, William and I are season ticket holders at our beloved ITFC, so we thought about planting and growing from seed blue plants for the garden and friends. There is a Pansy actually called ‘Singing the Blues‘, so maybe a good place to start!
Well that’s my first ever blog, hope you enjoyed a little insight into my world, until next time, over and out!!
Sue x
by Kris Collins | Jun 3, 2016 | Expert Update, Gardening News, Gardening Posts, Potatoes, Vegetables
Innovative Egg & Chips® plant makes the finals in two of gardening’s most prestigious floral awards
Thompson & Morgan is celebrating a second time in as many weeks, following the industry success of its latest dual cropping creation, Egg & Chips®.
The innovative potato and aubergine graft has been well received by all sectors of the industry and customers alike, with strong sales in its first season on the market. Already an announced finalist in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year, the Ipswich-based seed and plant specialist has just been informed that Egg & Chips® has also been shortlisted as one of the five finalists in the prestigious Fleuroselect Fleurostar awards.
Egg & Chips®
Traditionally a bedding plant event, organisers where so impressed with the unique attributes of Egg & Chips® that it is being pitted against four new floral creations in this year’s ceremony; Argyranthemum ‘Grandaisy’, Dahlia x hybrida ‘Dahlegria Red Yellow Bicolor’, Dianthus caryophyllus ‘Capitán Colón’ and Begonia hybrid ‘Miss Malibu’.
Thompson & Morgan new product development manager, Michael Perry said; “We’re really pleased to see recognition being given to this very special creation. Previous finalists of these two prestigious awards, such as Petunia ‘Night Sky’ and Viburnum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’, have gone on to become top-sellers for the industry, so expect to see Egg & Chips® widely grown on allotments, patios and gardens across the UK. Our recent focus on dual cropping vegetable plants has opened up home growing to everyone. Both our Egg & Chips® and Tomtato® plants allow home grown crops to be produced in the smallest of spaces. As long as you have room for a large patio pot, you have the space to grow your own potatoes and aubergines or potatoes and tomatoes.”
Egg & Chips®
Michael says these quirky plants could be the answer to encouraging the next generation of gardeners too. He adds: “These plants really capture the imagination of children. Grow Egg & Chips® with your kids or grandkids this summer and see their amazement as they harvest large shiny aubergines from the top and a crop of large white potatoes from the pot below.”
Egg & Chips®
The FleuroStar Contest will be held at nine locations in The Netherlands and Germany as part of the annual Flower Trials open days. More than 30 professionals working in plant breeding, production and retail, as well as trade journalists and marketing specialists, will choose the ‘Winner with the Wow Factor’ based on the highest average score on commercial potential and point of sale attractiveness. The winner will be announced on 16th June at the Green Inspiration Event at RAI Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Egg and Chips® can be grown outside in a sunny sheltered spot and will crop right through to the first frosts of autumn – even longer if you can bring the pot indoors later in the season. So there is still time to grow Egg & Chips® this season. Visit www.thompson-morgan.com and search ‘Egg & Chips®’ to order yours.
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