layering sweet peas If you want sweet peas with spectacularly long, perfectly straight stems and lots of large flowers on each stem, it's a good idea to layer them, but this does involve tonnes of work. When you are rea
gardening with children – sowing the seeds If you are interested in gardening with children this series will show you how to start a children's veg patch. In this second part we will talk about sowing the seeds (read part 1 and part 3). My dau
planting container combinations at perch hill Watch as Sarah plants up a combination of edible container plants and shares her top tips for success. you might like View Peat Free
growing a half-hardy annual cutting patch Sarah talks through her favourite half hardy annual flower varieties for growing in the cutting patch. I'm standing in my half-hardy annual cutting patch and I absolutely love
identifying your soil type Soils can be identified in to their general types by the way they feel and respond to handling. Pick up a handful and squeeze it together. Sand feels gritty and the grains do not stick together when
how to stake your annuals Sarah shares her top tricks on how to stake your annual seedlings effectively. I want to show you what I’ve been up to this week, which is staking lots of the things tha
staking plants There are some fantastic gardens within half an hour of my house, all of which teach as much about how to garden as anything I could come up with. I try to walk around them often and in as many
using native wood structures In 2012 I had a resolution for my new vegetable patch - to use only British native wood for plant supports and edging. I needed to raise the beds to help drainage on our heavy clay soil. If I di
pollinator super plants Many cultivated garden plants have limited wildlife value. Years of selection for increasing showy blooms has resulted in flowers losing their attraction to pollinators, but there are plenty of t
growing primula auriculas Auriculas are one of those frustrating groups of plants that are continually evolving. Just when you find one you particularly like, it is superseded by another quite similar, said to be a better per
growing and picking lilacs If you ask people to name their favourite scented flower, lilac is almost always mentioned. But, if so many of us like lilacs, why do so few of us grow them? It's true they can be accused of performin
understanding dahlia groups Below is a list of the different dahlia groups, along with some classification info and an example of a variety in each group. Classification of dahlias is rather complicated, as there are over 50,00
clematis for every month of the year Clematis are among the showiest of climbers – and a garden with climbers is a place that feels as though it has come into its own. No longer a randomly selected patch of cultivated earth,
planting snowdrops Plant your snowdrops as soon as they arrive. Whilst they prefer dappled shade, they also do well out in the open. Snowdrops thrive in reliably moist, well-drained soil, rich in organic matter so add
growing chillies from seed south devon chilli farm's top tips Growing chillies from seed is easy, as a general rule chillies are much more prolific and generous than its brother the sweet, not hot pepper. sowing chilli seeds I
why you should choose 'prepared' freesia corms Freesias were my best gardening success in 2011. They can be a washout if you start with corms that have been sitting around too long in their bag, so that all life's juices have been drawn out of th
