Category: Gardening know how

Planting slug resistant plants is the most effective way of stopping slugs and snails from devouring your garden. You may have read articles promising that you can get rid of slugs and snails permanently. But you can’t. They will always return, no matter what you use. Garden snails were imported as food into Northern Europe by the…

If you clean and maintain garden tools regularly, they’ll probably last a lifetime. Secateurs and shears will cut more smoothly. They’ll be easier to use. Spades, forks and trowels won’t rust. And handles won’t swell or split. It only takes a few minutes to clean secateurs, trowels and spades after you use them. And if you add…

It’s easy to grow chrysanthemums. And they’ll add brilliant late-season colour. When the rest of your garden is collapsing gently into the beginnings of winter, chrysanthemums will carry on blooming. They come in a wide range of colours and styles, from demure daisy types to vibrant swirls of outrageousness. So I asked Dan Cooper of the…

Autumn and spring are the best time to plant perennials. So that’s also the best time to fill gaps in your border – or even revamp your border completely. To find out more about the best time to plant perennials and other tips for filling a gap in your border, I visited Marchants Hardy Plants to talk to…

Salvias are the stars of the late season garden. Many flower from summer right through to the first frosts. William Dyson is the UK’s top expert on salvias. He’s the curator of Great Comp Garden in Kent, where he also runs the award-winning Dyson’s Nurseries. I asked him to tell me what we need to know about growing…

If you grow daffodils, they’ll come back year after year, often increasing in number. Tulips are outrageously colourful and gorgeous, but usually disappear after one or two years. Daffodils are easy-going. Not only do they come back, they will often spread. Daffodils are also considered to be deer, squirrel, rodent and rabbit-proof. (Although old hands will…

Drought tolerant plants are at the top of the list if you have gaps to fill in your garden. The record-breaking heat and drought in the UK this summer left our gardens fried and frazzled. And there are predictions that future years will also hold droughts and hotter temperatures. But however hot or dry the long-term…

We all have summer garden problems. People who write, film or photograph gardening are often accused of making everything look unrealistically beautiful. And sometimes we do. I’ve found myself lying or standing in some very difficult positions just to get that perfect beautiful shot of a plant because everything around it is looking distinctly shabby. But…

Is your garden full of dying plants because of this summer’s extreme heat or drought? My persicaria looks like a bowl of crisps, the Virginia creeper’s leaves are limp, the veronicastrum is flagging and many leaves have brown tips. So what can we do? I decided to ask an expert. I visited the beautiful Grade 2* Listed Borde…