News - Page 13
We have wonderful gifts in stock, something for everyone and for every budget. For the gardener in your life;
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Make a Christmas wreath for your front door and welcome your festive guests in style. It’s easy to buy a pre-made wreath, and you’ll find some gorgeous examples here in our Christmas shop. But if you’re feeling creative, you can add that personal touch and craft your own, weaving in materials from the garden for a naturally festive celebration.
DIY Christmas Wreath
We’ve got all you need to put together your own wreath here at the garden cent...
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A gardener from Lancashire, UK has won the award for the most bat-friendly plot following an RHS competition for Wild About Gardens Week.
RHS Wild About Gardens Week
The competition asked gardeners to choose a range of insect-friendly plants, watch them grow and then send in a photo.
Paul Burton from Lancashire lavished a feast of goodies on his local wildlife including a pond to attract the insects bats feed on, plus woody shrubs and a small...
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Happy National Poinsettia Day! Gardeners around the world celebrate our favourite Christmas flower each year on 12 December, paying tribute to this exotic beauty that for many encapsulates the essence of Christmas.
National Poinsettia Day
December 12 is the Dia de la Virgen in the plant’s native Mexico, where poinsettias have been used to celebrate Christmas since the 17th century and are known as La Flor de la Nochebuena, or Flower of the Holy Nig...
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Ireland’s government is getting behind our beleaguered bees and asking businesses to do their bit to plant nectar-rich plants and provide habitats for pollinating insects.
Protect our Bees
The launch of the initiative is the latest step in the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, identifying actions everyone can take to help protect pollinators – responsible for helping 78% of Ireland’s plants flower and set fruit.
Steps businesses can take incl...
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On a brisk, clear December day there’s nothing nicer than working up a warm glow outside in the garden. Here are the jobs you can get on with this month:
General tasks:
Clear out old seed packets to make sure you aren’t sowing seed that’s past its best next spring. Treat yourself to new replacements from the seed racks in the garden centre.
Avoid walking on the lawn on frosty mornings as you can end up d...
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Grow microgreens on a bright windowsill indoors and you can keep your green fingers busy right through the winter as well as providing yourself with some really scrumptious freshly picked and home- grown salad greens even when the garden outside is frozen.
Microgreens
Microgreens are veg eaten at seedling stage, when they’re extremely tender and the flavour is fiercely concentrated into a little taste explosion, It’s the very latest in cutting-ed...
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Bird tables at the ready: it’s almost time for Birdwatch Ireland’s annual survey, known as the Garden Bird Survey (GBS), enlisting the public’s help to chart the fortunes of Ireland’s birdlife from year to year.
Birdwatch Ireland
The GBS starts in December, with about 1000 people sending in records each year. All you have to do is keep a note of the highest number of each bird species visiting your garden each week through winter, and submit...
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This year’s autumn colour display has been pronounced ‘beyond spectacular’ by one of the country’s leading autumn gardens, the Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire.
Autumn Colour
‘The arboretum always colours well, but this year I’ve noticed certain individual trees that are looking beyond spectacular with intensely bright colour,’ said director of operations Stuart Priest.
At Stourhead in Wiltshire, famous for its autumn displa...
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Results from this year’s Big Butterfly Count are in – and the majority of butterflies are continuing to struggle with populations of most species falling, and some at their lowest numbers since the count began.
Big Butterfly Count
More than 36,000 people took part in the count this year, spotting about 390,000 butterflies over the three-week recording period in midsummer.
The Gatekeeper, Comma and Small Copper butterflies experienced their...
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