News - Page 123
The plant of the month for October is the conifer, and there's a good reason to be celebrating these beautiful evergreen trees as this week is National Conifer Week.
Chances are you already have a conifer in your garden as they're hugely popular garden trees. Whether you've got a container, tiny city garden or acres of lawn, you'll find a conifer that's just the right shade, texture, shape and size, from low-growing hummocky Pinus mugo to Korean fir wit...
Spread the word on wildlife in your garden and you could help reverse the trend of declining populations and habitat loss, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). They want you to talk to friends, family and neighbours about the wildlife in your garden in the hope that people will get together to link gardens into Britain's biggest wildlife sanctuary.
A survey carried out by the RSPB found almost three-quarters of us haven't s...
Job of the week: Feed the compost heap
As you put the garden to bed you'll generate a huge mass of fallen leaves, old crops and cleared material. As long as it's disease free, use it to fill the compost heap, converting green waste into valuable organic soil improver. Chop up woody material as small as possible, and mix different materials together as you fill the bin. In six months you should have a dark, rich, crumbly compost to use through...
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It's time to make rosehip syrup – one of the most nutritious and delicious by-products from one of the most beautiful flowers in the garden.
Roses are best known for their gorgeous flowers, but their hips are pretty too - and incredibly nutritious, with each berry containing more vitamin C than oranges. You'll find plenty of varieties with particularly good hips here in our garden centre in Lymington: favourites include the Scots rose...
The Malvern Autumn Show is 20 this year and it's bigger and better than ever – especially the giant vegetables!
The UK National Giant Vegetable Championship is held at the show each year and this year's display promises to be another record-breaker.
Last year saw the UK's biggest cabbage at 124.8 lbs, grown by David Thomas from Cornwall, and the world's longest beetroot at 6.67m (21.89ft) produced by Malvern regular Joe Atherton – also hold...
Extend the season with cloches and you can carry on growing veg right through till the first frosts. Stock up on your favourite type now, ready to use as soon as temperatures start to fall: whether you prefer convenient, easy-to-use polythene tunnels or rigid and sturdy long row cloches you'll find them in stock in our garden centre here in Lymington.
Put these mobile mini-greenhouses over your plants now they'll trap the last of the sunshine, keeping t...
Gardening is good for your kids – it's official! A report from researchers in the US has confirmed the mounting evidence that schoolchildren who learn gardening as part of their day-to-day studies eat more healthily and do better in their studies. They found students who get their fingers dirty on a regular basis behave better, too.
As if that wasn't enough, Spanish scientists have also shown that green spaces in city schools improve mental development...
The plant of the month for September is the Japanese anemone, your go-to plant for late summer colour.that lasts well into autumn and beyond. Its season of interest extends well beyond its beautifully simple, saucer-shaped flowers, too: the petals unfurl from silky buds which are just as pretty, and once the flowers have faded they leave a quirky little golden-green bobble dancing on wiry stems above the foliage lasting well into the colder months of the year. Even...
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As the autumn colours deepen into a fiery glow, the garden is ablaze with colour in a grand finale to the year. Winter is just around the corner now – so get the garden ready with our jobs to do this month.
General tasks:
- Clear dead plant material including fallen leaves, dead stems and spent flowers to prevent disease
- Sow or turf new lawns on well-prepared, raked and trodden soil that's completely level for a perf...
Dry and store onions now that their top growth has browned and begun to droop: this is a sign that they've drawn all the energy in their leaves deep down into the roots and are going dormant, ready to store.
Drying your onions hardens the skins and preserves the inner core, keeping it fresh and ready for you to use later in the year. Don't hurry the drying process: you'll need at least a couple of weeks. The idea is to keep the skins baking steadily whi...