Miniaturisation is not a trend which is limited to the world of electronics. It is increasingly relevant to plants and as in the case of mini hostas shows cult status soon follows.
If you think of hostas you probably immediately picture lush, leafy plants forming clumps of bold dramatically coloured leaves.
But that is only part of the story.
Liquid plant feeding is now thought to be essential but with many different types of fertilisers available, all with different nutrient values, it’s not easy to know which is the best buy.
July in the garden is typically a time to kick back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour, dead heading and harvesting is really the order of the day.
Lots of gardeners don’t trust bamboo - they worry about rampant growth, indestructible roots and invasion of gardens – but there are ways of growing bamboo safely.
Some people call them ‘demon spreaders’, others just don’t trust them but thankfully bamboos are starting to get a much better profile.
Bamboos are woody grasses and there are about a thousand species found across the world either in moist tropical areas, or in warm temperate countries.
The garden is having its fi rst peak in July and it is a brilliant time for your garden or allotment. Roses will never look better, the vegetable garden is becoming fruitful again, and we pray for warm, dry weather for the strawberry harvest.
Gill Heavens appreciates the sheer joys of planting for scent in the garden and the joy they bring to the senses.
This is a subject I do not claim to be an expert on. My sense of smell is on occasion non-existent, seldom efficient. I have often felt bereft as others have coo-ed and swooned whilst burying their faces into peonies and rhododendron flowers.
However in this perfume desert there have been noticeable oases, times when I could appreciate the joys and occasional horrors of scent in the garden.
The nesting season for birds is in full swing so that calls for common sense and precautions from gardeners when it comes to cutting back hedges.
We are all very passionate about protecting wildlife and one of the big themes every spring is cutting back hedges and trees while birds are nesting.
The main nesting season is from March to August inclusive. However, nesting does happen outside of this period, so if as a gardener you are looking for exact dates when it’s safe to cut back hedges then you might have a problem.
If you are looking for something really different and fun to grow try loofahs, sometimes known as sponge gourds, best known for the bath sponges made from its mature fruit yet in some parts of the world prized as a vegetable.
Did you know that loofah sponges are made from a vegetable? Even better, you can grow them for cleaning and eating!
You’ve probably had or used a loofah sponge in your life, whether in the bath or for cleaning around the house. But did you know it was made from a vegetable?
Grenville Sheringham believes there are many garden tasks which lend themselves to a spot of daydreaming …
There seems to be a fashion these days for doing everything with mindfulness, gardening included.
This is a cause of some concern for me because I have always thought of my gardening as a mindless activity.
Let me explain what I mean.
In my younger days I worked in various large public and private gardens as part of a team, and a lot of the work was, frankly, boring.
May is always looked forward to as the first month of summer but it also marks the end of spring. It is a month when gardeners can get caught out by mini droughts and heat waves and even the last, late frosts.
The biggest threat is young plants that have that have recently been transplanted into the open ground and any freshly emerging seedlings. So be sure to keep all of them well watered and if the young transplants look as if they are flagging give them some shade protection from the heat of the sun or drying winds.
Probably the easiest grown plants for sunny, well drained sites, lavenders are loved by gardeners and now with the right selection it is possible to enjoy them all summer long.
Lavender is evocative of warm summer days filled with heady scents.
Lavender (Lavandula) is, of course, an easy to grow, evergreen shrub that produces masses of beautifully scented flowers above green or silvery-grey foliage. This drought-tolerant plant thrives in a sunny border, container, herb or gravel gardens.
