Amateur Gardening

THERE is a bulb, tuber, corm or rhizome for every season, but those that flower from late spring through summer and right into autumn are the most glorious. Think alliums, dahlias, lilies, freesias, canna lilies, ranunculus, Mirabilis jalapa, crocosm

I AM not a great lover of power tools, I have to admit, ladies! The only ones I really value are my electric lawnmower and my shredder. I don’t use leaf vacs or strimmers: they make a lot of horrible noise and do quite a lot of environmental damage.

Top Tip Sow a succession of seeds every few weeks to prolong flowering from early summer right through until the autumn frosts. IT’S time to start thinking about sowing half-hardy (HHA) and hardy annual (HA) seeds for this year’s one-season color. Al

MOST gardeners lose some plants or potential crops to frosts sooner or later. We can have damp grey years with late wet springs which seldom have a frost, or we can enjoy a bright sunny early spring and endure several. It’s difficult to tell if and w

Star letter MANY older readers might be finding it difficult to manage a big garden especially if they have no one to help them with all the heavy digging. Here is a humorous anecdote of how one old man overcame such a problem: An 80-year-old man liv

WE tend to have preconceptions about gladioli. We think of them as wildly flamboyant, which many of them are. We also think of them as tender – and yes, most of them won’t take much frost. And don’t they all need digging up and drying off in the autu

I WAS thrilled to see Dahlia ‘Mignon Mixed’ as part of the free seed schedule because they are such simple and giving flowers to grow. Not only are the seeds large, making them easy to sow and germinate, but the flowers are beloved by pollinators tha

OIL and water, Meghan and the Royals, and… err, bath tubs and toasters: some things just don’t mix. And the same is true of builders and plants. When I heard the rumble of heavy machinery inside the old walled kitchen garden where I work, I knew ther

This word search comprises words associated with the colour yellow. They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate words may appear in the gri

HORTICULTURAL conservation charity Plant Heritage has accredited 13 new National Plant Collections, or ‘living libraries’ of plants, including two that were relocated during lockdown. A collection of Nerine sarniensis (known also as Guernsey or Jerse

Top Tip Perennials and bulbs in containers can be planted out when they fade to live on in the garden for years. GIVING a bouquet of flowers is a lovely thing to do, but why not create a longer-lasting pot of joy for someone you love or someone who n

SECATEURS are basic gardening tools and are usually taken along by the gardener regardless of the job in hand. They serve every purpose, from dead-heading to pruning, and a quality pair will last for years if you maintain them properly. In historic t

1 and 9 across Crucially, the subject of this week’s Miscellany! (10,2,6) 7 Type of curry, originally from Pakistan and northern India, found in a herbal tincture (5) 8 Emblematic rose (sometimes called the union rose) which takes its name from the m

ENJOY the beauty and scent of roses, as well as the sight of bees, butterflies, and birds, by growing wildlife-friendly varieties. These garden gems provide pollinators with nectar in summer, while many also supply birds with nutritious red hips in t

CONSIDERING they give so much pleasure and will potentially provide months of beauty for years on end, bulbs are incredibly easy to plant. For the best results, choose a sunny place with free-draining soil that has been enriched with well-rotted comp

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LOVE at first sight may seem an extreme way to describe Jackie Candler’s reaction to an exuberant giant rhubarb, but she’s adamant that it was the clincher when she was looking to buy a new home in Wiltshire. Neither Jackie nor her husband Barry were

THEY steal root space, light, water and nutrients from your fruit and vegetables. They can also harbour pests, diseases and viruses – it’s no wonder we’re constantly waging a war on weeds! But more of us want to ditch chemicals in favour of environme

FOR tiny gardens and intimate courtyards, growing plants upwards makes the best use of space. A soothing outlook of greenery and flowers full of insects and birds replaces bare fence panels and walls. Hardy, long-lived wall plants can take their time

POSTPONING this year’s Chelsea Flower Show from late May to the last week of September has really thrown all the balls in the air. There are exhibitors whose specialisms are completely out of season – Johnny Walker’s daffodils immediately come to min