News - Page 111

Harvest your onions

Harvest your onions as soon as the ramrod-straight leaves start toppling over and turning brown.

Harvest your Onions

This is a sign that the plants are drawing all their goodness down into the bulb at the end of their season – your cue to dig up the lot for storing through winter.

Take your time over lifting and drying the crop, as the slower you do it, the better they’ll keep and the less likely they’ll be to develop rots in storage. The firs...

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Keep an eye out for red spider mite

Keep an eye out for red spider mite especially in greenhouses, as this is just the time of year these annoying little sap-sucking pests begin to cause serious damage.

Red Spider Mite!

Signs to look out for are mottled and yellowish leaves, often with little clusters of greenish specks on the undersides. A cobweb-like webbing and early leaf drop are also telltale signs. Red spider mite don’t actually turn red till autumn, by which tim...

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Much-loved gardening presenter Geoff Hamilton has been honoured

Much-loved gardening presenter Geoff Hamilton has been honoured with the opening of a new flower border in his memory at the garden he founded, Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland.

The Geoff Hamilton Border

The Geoff Hamilton border commemorates the 20th anniversary of the gardener’s sudden death in 1996, aged 59, after suffering a heart attack on a charity bike ride. Celebrity gardener Carol Klein opened the new border, on the site of the...

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SEPTEMBER – HTA PLANT OF THE MOMENT FASHIONABLY LATE PERENNIALS

Add fresh excitement to your autumn displays by including a selection of seasonal stunners to flower beds and patio pots. Several hardy perennials have been patiently growing all year, waiting for their turn to take centre stage. And now their time has come to burst into bloom, filling our gardens with vibrant colour.

Japanese anemones are always a favourite. Tall and bold, their simple flowers in shades from pink to white really celebrate the season. They’re...

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Boost your soil with green manures

Boost your soil with green manures as your veg beds empty out towards the end of the season and you’ll replenish the essential nutrients your plants depend on and improve the soil’s texture.

Replenish essential nutrients with Green Manures

As the early crops finish and the potatoes come out of the ground and big bare patches start popping up all over the place, just broadcast-sow green manure seed (available from our garden centre he...

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The world’s longest double herbaceous borders

The world’s longest double herbaceous borders have opened at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, sweeping along 320 metres of the Broad Walk through the heart of the world-famous garden.

Kew Gardens

The borders, along the approach to Kew’s Palm House, contain thirty thousand plants mixing bold textures and vibrant colours, with the display timed to peak in high summer from June to September. Many are unusual varieties propagated from Kew’s world-class co...

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Plant flowers for bats and win some fantastic wildlife gardening prizes

Plant flowers for bats and win some fantastic wildlife gardening prizes in a new competition launched by the RHS in partnership with the Bat Conservation Trust and the Wildlife Trusts.

Create a Bat-Friendly Garden

All you have to do is plant a bat feast of insect-friendly flowers to give your local colony of bats plenty of food to enjoy, then take a photo and send it in. Among bat-attracting flowers you can plant in your garden are oxeye daisies, Ver...

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Have a go at square foot gardening

Have a go at square foot gardening and find out just how much delicious home-grown produce you can harvest from the tiniest of spaces.

Square Foot Gardening - Give it a try? 

When all you’ve got to work with is a single raised bed, as little as a metre square, packing variety into your patch becomes incredibly important. Divide it up, though, and you can harvest nine or ten different vegetables.

You don’t have to stick to the minimum size...

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Gardeners can play a key role in preventing flooding

Gardeners can play a key role in preventing flooding after heavy rain, according to the RHS which is calling on everyone with a garden to do their bit to soak up excess rainwater.

Help prevent Flooding after heavy rain

Torrential rain and thunderstorms have caused flash flooding in the south-east this summer, and extreme weather events are set to become increasingly common. Yet gardens can play a massive role in reducing the risk of flooding by soaki...

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It’s National Allotments Week this week

It’s National Allotments Week this week and we’re all Growing Together – this year’s theme for the annual celebration of all things allotment-related run by the National Allotment Society.

National Allotment Week

Allotment sites all across the country are opening to the public and welcoming in local communities to see for themselves how plots are open to all sections of society, from the unemployed to the professional, young or old, all races and rel...

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