Gardens

White and purple pansies

An Exceptional September in your Garden

While many gardeners regard September as the end of the growing season, in truth this time of the year still provides plenty of scope for planting and sowing. It may go against some seasonal logic, but planting in September offers a variety of options for late-year flourishing of flowers and vegetables. Flowers Starting with this […]

Cherry Tree - AdobeStock_415667260

Tree-mendous

Discover a brilliant variety of trees perfect for small gardens, each with their unique charm and benefits. Creating a beautiful, space-efficient garden presents a delightful and rewarding challenge, particularly when it comes to selecting the perfect trees for small spaces. This requires careful consideration of size, growth habits and seasonal changes to ensure each tree […]

Rocket - Arugula

Salad Days

Spring into summer by planting your own salad vegetables to enjoy over the warmer months. As we prepare to enter that golden summer season in our garden, you may well experience that tinge of disappointment when seeing some plants not flourish to their full potential, and there are always a  cluster of seeds not sown […]

Common blackbird - male (Turdus merula)

Garden Sing-Along

Bring music to your life by attracting your own dawn chorus. There’s nothing more soothing and calming than waking up to a fresh, sunny, dew-glistening garden,  nitrates lifting up off the soil and the gentle tweets, chirps and warbles made by an array of beautiful birds. Nature’s early-morning concert is one of the summer’s greatest […]

Winter garden - Great Tit on branch with berries

Berry Nice Indeed

Warming those winter garden vistas with some bursts of festive colour. We all fear the greying gloom of winter, yet with the use of berry-producing plants and trees, your outside space can quickly adopt all the sprigs and sprays of summer. Those showcasing winter berries are easy to grow, hardy and resilient. More than that, […]

Living Magazines Revive garden after summer shutterstock_589249358

Autumn Revival

How to revive your garden after the long hot summer. If you think you suffer from the heat as far as summer goes, think how that sun-baked garden fares without even so much as a dash of sun lotion. Of course, any knowledgeable gardener will tell you it’s better to take action to protect your […]

Living Magazines Wildflower meadow

Let’s Get Wild

Turn your garden into a veritable paradise for the birds and the bees by creating a wildflower meadow. Simple, environmentally beneficial and stunningly beautiful.  Manicured lawns and glamorous show gardens may be all the rage these days, but nothing quite compares to the  raw, untamed beauty of wildflowers. Providing an unrestrained explosion of colour and […]

Living Magazines Gardening - seeded sense

Seeded Sense

What you should be planting now to ensure maximum spray for the summer While March can sometimes feel more like winter than spring, now is the time to start sowing seeds if your cherished outdoor space is to flourish in the summer months. Cosmos The beauty of cosmos is not just the beautiful, delicate multi-coloured […]

Living Magazines Bee - AdobeStock_295162198

Plan for Pollinators

It may be cold outside, but encouraging bees and other pollinators is an all-year-round task, so get planning now for spring, summer and beyond. We’ve all got the message now that we need to look after the bees. Along with other pollinators (even those dreaded picnic assassins the wasps!) they are the key to helping […]

Living Magazines Compost

Garden Gold

Forget diamonds – the gardener’s best friend is compost, and with peat-based compounds a no-no, what else can you use? All of us are trying to be more organic when it comes to gardening, and with sales of peat-based compost set to be banned from 2024, we might as well be prepared. There really is […]

Living Magazines Purple Salvia nemorosa flowers in summer

Gardens that can Stand the Heat

With global temperatures on the rise and all of us trying to cut down on our water usage, choosing drought-tolerant plants for your garden is more important than ever… Three to Take Home Helen Reeley, of Berkhamsted-based Reeley Gardens, shares her three favourite drought-resistant plants with us. She says: ‘They’re bullet proof, a good size […]