gardening

  • Gardening jobs to do this spring

    The winter to spring transition is a key time to prep your garden for the year ahead. To avoid a minefield of mistakes, below are some top do’s and don’ts to get started. I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing in gardening is difficult – but it can seem confusing. It’s one rule for one plant, a different rule for others.

  • How to grow and care for indoor plants: tricks and tips to keep houseplants healthy

    For those of us without gardens, being able to 'bring the outside in' is important, and caring for houseplants has become increasingly popular in recent months with many experts suggesting there has been a new-found millennial desire to have something to nurture and care for prompted by the pandemic.

  • How to get your garden spring ready in one weekend

    Cup of tea in hand; you draw back the curtains to see a muddy lawn, overgrown shrubs and a peppering of dead leaves. However, the trees have taken on a green hue, birds are singing and colourful bulbs brave the crisp morning.

  • How to get rid of pests in your garden for good, from slugs to squirrels

    After recently putting a beautiful tray of carefully grown plug plants of Daucus carota outside my greenhouse to harden off before planting, I was dismayed to find the burgeoning seedlings shaved to the ground. Ruddy rabbits.

  • Meet the people who ditched the grind for the garden

    Is your garden your happy place? Have you ever dreamt of swapping your uninspiring 9-5 for a more fulfilling career tending the land as a horticulturist? You are not alone because the industry is enjoying a boom in interest and enthusiasm – people simply can’t get enough of retraining as gardeners, it seems.

  • These perennials will flourish, bulk up and return each year – garden gifts that really do keep on giving

    At this time of year, as the days lengthen and the temperatures start (please God) to creep up, the lure of planting thousands of annuals from seed is strong. With irresistible sweet shop-style catalogues and endless social-media posts of carts tumbling over with bucketloads of summer blooms, a patch full of breezy annuals feels like a quick, fast-growing floral fix.

  • Gardening in March: what to plant and tidy in your garden this month

    A fuzz of fresh, vibrant green is starting to appear over shrubs and trees, keeping the many spring bulbs company. It is such an exciting time in the garden. March brings with it a great influx of light, plus the clocks going forward: by the end of the month, evening gardening is very much back on the cards. That extra hour will come in handy as this is the first really busy gardening month. Greenhouses and windowsills soon fill up with pots and seed trays as we attempt to get our plants to the

  • Seven things to keep in mind before committing to new garden furniture – according to the experts

    With spring finally on the horizon, it’s time to think about sprucing up your garden. And if you’re lucky enough to have an outside space, be it a large garden or a small terrace, the right outdoor furniture can increase its appeal exponentially.

  • Jo Wood on gardening: ‘A surprise diagnosis opened my eyes to all the chemicals in food’

    The entrepreneur and ex-wife of Rolling Stones rocker Ronnie Wood on the joy of going off-grid and being in touch with nature.

  • Don't panic! It's not too late to plant spring bulbs

    Hindsight is a wonderful thing; in an ideal world, we would have saved a bit of money and bought bulbs in September and October and planted them in good time. But when is life ever that straightforward? The good news is that we can all cut ourselves some slack: it’s not too late to allow ourselves the anticipation of spring flowers by using potted bulbs.

  • Michael Heseltine: ‘I always believed that if I had a garden I would never be alone’

    My wife, Anne, and I have lived at Thenford since 1976. It’s nestled in the Northamptonshire countryside, not far from Banbury, and as soon as we set eyes on the house and its gardens, we knew it was what we’d been looking for.

  • The hardiest veg to plant in 2023

    Many gardeners struggled with vegetables last year, as the intense heat and dry conditions affected lots of crops, especially courgettes and runner beans. Success depends a lot on choosing the best varieties, and the plethora on the market makes this hugely confusing.

  • Why all gardeners should learn to love moss

    On Gardeners’ Question Time at this time of year, we get many questions concerning moss – mainly as a problem in lawns. Recently, with wet winters, moss seems to be getting the upper hand. So, as many gardeners are dramatically changing their mindset when it comes to lawns, are we going to reappraise the benefits of moss, too? Should we really be purging our lawns of this emerald invader?

  • The best British cut flowers to buy for Valentine's day

    The typical cut flower to buy a beloved on Valentine’s Day is, of course, the rose. But at this time of year, it’s hardly the true plant lover’s (or environmentalist’s) choice. Roses aren’t in season in February in the UK – indeed, The Telegraph’s gardening expert Tom Brown advises that now is the best time to prune climbing and rambling roses, while they are dormant. According to Jessica Blume, a flower grower and part of SSAW Collective, a community of growers and chefs committed to seasonal p

  • Gardening in February: what to plant, prune and tidy in your garden this month

    Being in the garden in February is like being let into a secret. Everyone else is cocooned away behind double glazing, convinced by central heating and electric lights that winter will never end and that the best thing is to continue to hide away.

  • Japanese knotweed is terrible for your home, but it sure is delicious

    It’s green, it spreads fast and it is not something any homeowner wants to discover they have. Japanese knotweed pushed its way back into the news this week after a clump of the plant growing in a west London garden led to a house buyer taking his seller to court for not being open about the property’s sitting tenant. But when I heard about it, I confess that my first reaction was lucky him!

  • How to add more plants to your garden – and for free

    If you want more plantings for your garden but your economic prospects are looking as dismal as the winter weather, the answer is simple: take hardwood cuttings.

  • My top tips for getting gardening fit for 2023 – in your 60s and beyond

    I love February. I spend hours barrowing organic matter onto all my veg and borders. I've been extravagant this year and have just spent £250 on 20 tons of digestate which will be tipped in a huge heap. Three days later I will have moved the bulk of it.

  • Why the Rocky Mountains are a treasure trove for English gardeners

    Around 3am, during my first night up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, I woke with the camper’s urge to pee and was forced from the comfort of my small tent. Fumbling with my shoes, trying not to wake my friend in the adjacent tent, I pushed out into the cool mountain air, and stood for a moment while my brain rebooted.

  • What's in and out in the world of gardening this year

    From fashion to foliage, our annual original and best garden trends feature showcases what you will be buying (and what's off-trend) in 2023.

  • How to protect your plants from winter weather and nibbling animals

    For gardeners across the UK, winter brings its own set of challenges. In particular, the unpredictable weather and foraging animals that can decimate young saplings and shrubs in any outdoor space.

  • Gardening jobs in January: what to plant and tidy in your garden

    Provided the ground is not frozen, this time of year is a good opportunity to plant bare-root roses.

  • How to protect your banana plant over winter

    The plants that will survive a winter in your garden will depend very much upon where you are in the country and how sheltered your garden is. For those who garden in urban environments or in the South, it may be perfectly plausible for tree ferns and Japanese bananas to make it through the winter with very little or no protection whatsoever. For those who garden where frosts and persistent cold temperatures are more of a factor, protecting these beautiful and often expensive plants is a must.

  • How to force rhubarb successfully in your own garden

    A bowl of champagne-pink rhubarb, rushed from plot to plate in less than an hour, is one of the culinary highlights of midwinter. One spoonful always spins me back in time to my early 20s.

  • 15 New Year resolutions your garden will thank you for

    I love making new year resolutions. What’s not to like about anticipating an improved version of yourself that’s motivated to achieve all sorts of new challenges? While some are left racking their brains just before midnight only to come up with run-of-the-mill goals – eat healthily, go to the gym, read the classics – I tend to focus on my little urban plot, and the ideas spring up all over the place like sun spurge seedlings between the paving stones.

  • 10 top tips for ensuring your garden is frost-proof this winter

    The climate is uppermost in many gardeners’ minds now, with frosts here, and there’s no doubt that the more you know about your own microclimate, and how to adapt and alter it, the more you will be able to get out of your garden spaces and plants.