News - Page 61
When you're just starting out, full of enthusiasm and keen to get going, it can seem an age to wait before you pick the first fruits of all your hard work. And it's true that some crops, like purple-sprouting broccoli or parsnips, can take all year to mature to harvesting stage – mind you, it's well worth the wait.
Luckily there are loads of fantastic quick-crop vegetables to grow and eat while the slowcoaches are getting going, so sow these and you'll have...
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Most vegetables are raised from seed, making them fantastic value – for the price of a single lettuce bought in the shops, you can buy a packet of seed to grow 1000. That's reason enough to grow your own: but you'll find sowing seed is also hugely satisfying as the first tiny sprouts appear, with their promise of bumper crops to come.
Growing from seed is straightforward but there are a few things to remember as you crack open that first packet and get sowi...
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Sometimes in veg-growing, as in life, the golden oldies are the best.
Older 'heritage' veg varieties aren't often found in the shops, as they aren't uniformly shaped, sometimes don't store or travel well, and are difficult to harvest mechanically. That means the only way to enjoy their sumptuous flavours, colours and textures is if you grow your own.
Here are five of the best old-style veg to look out for in your favourite garden centre and try in your...
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One of the most useful varieties of climbing plants - very vigourous and colourful, producing flowers for much of the Spring and Summer. Montana is also very versatile, and not fussy about where it grows - around tree trunks, over a shed, fence or hedge or up a wall! A very attractive and useful climbing plant.
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It's cherry blossom time as Japanese cherries across the country burst into spectacular bloom.
In Japan the arrival of the cherry blossom is a major event, and in the UK, too, it's a cause for celebration at Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire, currently holding its annual Festival of Japanese Flowering Cherries (until the end of the month).
It's well worth tracking down some of these spectacularly beautiful small trees for your own garden. You'll fi...
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Get out gardening with the kids this week as the sun is (at last!) shining and there's no better time to be outside getting your hands and knees well and truly muddy.
Have a go at these fun activities at home too:
- Sowing seeds is always popular. Larger seeds like courgettes, cosmos and marigolds are easier for little fingers to handle.
- Hold a sunflower-growing competition! Choose tall varieties like 'Russian Giant' and plant seeds straig...
When you're starting out with your new veg garden and trying to decide what to grow first, the sheer variety of vegetables that opens up to you when you grow your own can be bewildering. You'll find so many different types in our garden centre, from artichokes to zucchini, not to mention the mouthwatering selection of varieties of each, that it's hard to know where to begin.
But there are some veg you shouldn't be without: the tried-and- tested, easy-to-grow...
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Simply Stunning!
These amazing shrubs have some of the most wonderful colours and make an impact in the garden that is matched by few others. As 'acid loving' plants, they don't do quite so well if you have chalky soil - BUT they work superbly in pots and containers, as well as borders and beds.
Come and see our wonderful selection!
This is one of the best and busiest times of the year, when it finally starts to get warmer and all the seeds seem to need sowing at once. Here's what you need to be getting on with in the garden this month:
General tasks:
- Tackle bindweed as soon as it appears, training it up a cane before spraying with glyphosate-based weedkiller
- Put slug defences in place: slug pubs, wildlife-friendly...
Prune fig trees to keep them shapely and encourage lots of fat, luscious fruit by autumn. Not many people realise it's quite possible to fan-train a fig against a fence in much the same way as you would a cherry or plum tree, keeping its size manageable and allowing gardeners to grow them even in modest gardens.
You'll find good fruiting figs such as 'Brown Turkey' – bred to perform in cooler conditions in Ireland - on sale in your favourite garden centre...
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