All the latest news and tips
July Garden Tips
Resilience: Within the last seven days it has been both too hot and too cold. Big fluctuations in temperature affect small seedlings adversely, then the slugs move in. The peas and broad beans I planted [...]
June Garden Tips
In the pink, magenta splatter and purple haze of colour. After the dulcet tints of Spring, the flowers that herald Summer ramp up intensity in colour saturation. Lovely and reliable perennials shine out in [...]
May Garden Tips
Smells and Grace: Those of us who are lucky enough to garden on acid soil can grow some rather brilliant plants. I turn my attention particularly to scented Rhododendrons, I don’t just mean the deciduous varieties [...]
April Garden Tips
Yellow as a baby chick for Easter: Nothing celebrates the coming of spring like sunshine yellow flowers. Even dandelions have their moment, providing nourishment for winter starved bumble bees. Although it is probably best to [...]
March Garden Tips
March 2016 - coming in like a lion March can still bite like a lion. Frost and snow is not uncommon. The photo showing the fat flower buds of a morello cherry against [...]
February Garden Tips
Feast your eyes on sheets of snowdrops: There are special open days at gardens not otherwise accessible at this time of year: Snowdrops at Rode Hall Rode Hall, Church Lane, Scholar Green, Cheshire, [...]
January Garden Tips
Happy New Year to all readers. Celebrate the New Year with a feast for the birds and the bees. Leave a few unwanted or spoiled apples on the lawn for the blackbirds, they like to [...]
December Garden Tips
Winter Gardens: In the past most large gardens were not open to the public during the winter. I suppose it was thought that gardens were only of interest in direct proportion to the quantity of [...]
November Garden Tips
Cold weather approaches: If the mild weather still holds there is still time to get things done before frost chills the soil. Sow broad beans, plant garlic bulbs and, if you can find them purple [...]
Garden Visit: Trentham Gardens Staffordshire
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown was commissioned by Granville 2nd Lord Gower to carry out improvements at Trentham over 21 years from 1759 to 1780. He enlarged the existing lake which was then fed by the river [...]