News - Page 130
Plan your crop rotation for this year, working out where you'll be growing what in the vegetable garden and at the same time avoiding the worst of the pests and diseases.
If you grow the same thing in the same place year after year colonies of pests simply increase from one season to the next, feeding on each successive generation until they reach plague proportions. Group the same types of veg together (legumes, for example, or brassicas) and then move...
Give your tools some TLC while the garden is quiet, as it won't be long before you're calling on them to work hard for you again - and you'll want them in tip-top condition when you do.
Start by cleaning your tools, brushing off any dirt and oiling wooden handles with teak oil. Next, turn your attention to sharpening blades.
It's not only cutting blades such as secateurs, loppers, garden knives and shears which need sharpening; hoes are mos...
The start of the new year marks your last few weeks on easy street before seed-sowing starts in earnest. Make the most of it by finishing off the winter jobs and getting ready for the new season.
General tasks:
- Keep an eye out for overwintering weeds as some, like chickweed, can still set seed and spread in milder spells.
- Check trees and shrubs you planted in autumn to make sure the frost hasn't lifted the roots ou...
January's plant of the month is the hellebore, always a welcome sight in early spring when their nodding bell-like flowers emerge from handsome evergreen foliage and fill the garden with shades of white, pink and rich plum purple.
The most popular varieties are without doubt Lenten roses, Helleborus orientalis, rock-solid reliable and returning with their wonderfully uplifting mid-spring display year after year. Look out for Harvington Hybrids in clear...
Celebrate the New Year in style with some inspiration and a brisk, bracing cold-weather walk through some of the country's best winter gardens, full of ideas about how to make your own garden look better at this time of year.
Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire is a great demonstration of the fantastic colour effects you can make from just foliage and bark: look out for their iconic combination of white-stemmed birch underplanted with glowing burgundy leav...
Get seed beds ready for sowing in plenty of time and you'll steal a march on the season - especially if you use the 'stale seedbed' technique in which soil is covered with clear polythene from late winter. It's widely used by commercial market gardeners but can be easily adapted to home growing.
Stale seedbeds harness and concentrate watery winter sunshine to warm the soil so your seeds can be sown earlier than they would otherwise. At the same time you...
It's Christmas! Make the most of all the green-fingered opportunities on offer this holiday season and you'll not only get your gardening fix, you'll get some great days out with the family and a lot of inspiration for your own garden too.
Closest to home, we've got a great Christmas lineup right here in our garden centre at Lymington including slap-up Christmas teas in the restaurant, dazzling Christmas decorations to get you in the festive mood and of...
Many of you take great pride in growing your own in your garden and being sustainable on it. So why not make a Christmas gift of Mulled wine to share your enjoyment?! It is surprisingly easy and it’ll get you in the Christmas spirit.
Ingredients
- 1 orange, sliced
- ¼tsp ground cardamom
- ½tsp ground coriander
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- ½tsp ground fennel
- ½tsp ground ginger
- 3 cloves ...
Force chicory for one of the finest gourmet treats of the winter kitchen garden. Now is prime chicon time, when these lettuce-like vegetables are at their delicate, bittersweet best.
Chicons are the forced shoots of chicory, usually 'Witloof' types which grow like densely-packed torpedoes. Made to grow in the dark, they produce tender heads of delicate, pale leaves with little of the bitterness of chicory grown outside. Braised slowly in white wine, but...
Make a home-grown Christmas wreath from material picked straight from the back garden for a handsome and original home-grown festive feast that will cost you pennies.
You'll find ready-made wreath frames in our garden centre here in Lymington to provide a sturdy background for your creation. You'll also need some florists' wire, and a suitably festive selection of plant material from the garden.
Collect plenty of evergreen foliage suc...