Water retention in Pots

Get water-saving savvy with Sue Whigham’s tips for keeping your pots’ occupants happy, healthy and hydrated this summer. The weather is like a yo-yo. Temperatures soar, then the following day it is overcast and drab – now, as we speak,...

Early Harvests

Jo Arnell explains how you can reap the rewards of a little forward planning when it comes to the most productive crops in the veg patch. The unstoppable rush of growth pushes on in the garden, as the plants race...

Wander around the garden

Sue Whigham takes a stroll around her own garden to pick a few of her treasured plants. We walked through one of The Woodland Trust’s small parcels of woodland early this morning for the usual dog walk only to hear...

Euphorbia Euphoria

The other day we made a welcome pit stop at Dulwich Park after crawling slowly up the South Circular and through the dreaded Catford traffic on the way to Brixton. Luckily we chose Dulwich, which, if you don’t know it,...

Points of interest

Looking for a horticultural day out with a difference? Explore WT’s pick of glorious gardens, garden centres and nurseries, each offering something a little unique.Looking for a horticultural day out with a difference? Explore WT’s pick of glorious gardens, garden...

Fern Times

Sue Whigham marvels at these most ancient of plants, which were around before the dinosaurs and still have a lot to offer gardeners now.

Border Basics

Jo Arnell strips back the foliage to put in the groundwork for beautiful borders When we look at a beautiful garden border, packed full of shapely shrubs and perennial colour it’s hard to imagine that they haven’t always been there...

An edible paradise

Jo Arnell tells us how to make a productive garden beautiful with deliciously attractive plants.

Marching forth

Get out and do some pruning, says Sue Whigham – but don’t be tricked into thinking the only way is up. ‘It’s the first day of March so beware with a hint of sweet spring in the air you might...

Borders with backbone

It’s all a matter of balancing the outrageous show-offs with the quiet achievers, says Jo Arnell. Garden borders can be tricky to get right. ‘I’ve looked at borders from both sides now,’ Joni Mitchell might have sung, had she been...

Winter’s promise

The days are lengthening and Jo Arnell is getting excited for the new gardening year.

Seeds of hope

The days are short, damp and dark, but Jo Arnell doesn’t care – she’s got her head deep in the seed catalogues. As soon as the last Christmas card is in the recycling, or even before, I am flicking through...

Keeping it real

Ditch the plastic says Jo Arnell and decorate your home with boughs of real holly (and other lovely things). Our Christmas decoration box is full, we’re wading through clutter and I really do want to cut back on plastic and...

Shining in the shade

It’s not all about the sunny spots – Sue Whigham celebrates the beauty of the darker parts of the garden. There has been a garden at the Inner Temple in London since the 12th century and mediaeval papers record an orchard...

Let the grasses grow

Not just something dull that needs endless mowing Sue Whigham exhalts the subtle effects of feature grasses in borders and for striking autumn colour. In 1871 William Morris travelled down from London to see a house near Lechlade and fell...

Dahlias, darling!

Sue Whigham celebrates and investigates the most joyous of late bloomers. Whether the name ‘dahlia’ was bestowed by the great Carl Linnaeus himself – the Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalised ‘binomial nomenclature’, the modern system of naming organisms –...

Taking stock

It’s not the end of the gardening year, says Jo Arnell, but time to look back on the seasons gone by and plan for the next ones. November is a great month to reflect on the growing year gone by....

Fronting up

Take pride in your front garden, says Sue Whigham, and the whole neighbourhood will thank you (gnomes optional…) A few weeks ago I was early for an appointment in Canterbury. It was raining hard. To fill in half an hour...

Summer’s embers

Jo Arnell finds plenty to look forward to as the season turns From where I’m sitting on the parched and dusty plains of this summer, I have to tell you that I am pinning all my hopes on September. I’m...

Grass roots

It’s that time of year when you suddenly notice your lawn is not at its Wimbledon best – time for expert advice. No matter how much you love gardening, there is one job you really shouldn’t try and do yourself: fix...

In full bloom

Jennifer Stuart-Smith of Blooming Green shares her expert knowledge on how to start your own cutting garden and fill your house with flowers Nothing gives a house a lift like vases of fresh flowers – there’s a reason interiors stylists...

Animal magic

Creating a pond in your garden will bring in wonderful wildlife says Sue Whigham The big chill of February and March were very unkind to my lovely little water lily (Pygmaea rubra) that has spent eight years in a large...

Late bloomers

The roses may be over, but don’t despair, says Jo Arnell, there are plenty of plants to bring colour to the borders yet It’s easy to think that the garden is on the way out this month. The early summer...

Harvest home

Jo Arnell celebrates the traditional early autumn festival. It’s hard to remember a time before Wilderness, Latitude, Glastonbury etc, but not so long ago there was only one major festival in the British year – Harvest Festival. Once a major...

Swedish summer

From lichen to beavers, Sue Whigham is rapt with the flora, fauna – and national attitudes to them – on her annual trip to Southern Sweden Sweden might surprise you if you were to visit, both in terms of climate...

A prickly subject

With more hot summers predicted Sue Whigham suggests we – carefully – embrace cactus.

How does your garden show?

The Chelsea Flower show is the floral equivalent of the Paris catwalk says Jo Arnell Often bizarre, occasionally radical, always brilliant, the Chelsea Flower Show is the most prestigious and talked about event in the gardening year. It is the...

Big is Beautiful

Sue Whigham rejoices in the splendour of plants with outrageously large leaves It was serendipitous that we discovered that Blenheim was to be closed for two days recently, as we had to put our visit off and decide on a...

Portrait of a Garden – Great Dixter

Jo Arnell shares her impressions of a year at Great Dixter, one of the great gardens of England, inspired by a new tribute by esteemed photographer Julian Anderson Everchanging, always interesting, often breathtaking, Great Dixter is a fascinating place to...

Good Garden Bugs

Not all garden bugs are baddies – Jo Arnell advises how to keep the pests at bay, while nurturing the good guys.

Scents of spring

Even before your garden is in full bloom it can be heavenly scented says Jo Arnell It seems positively greedy to expect flowers to be fragrant at this time of the year – a glimpse of colour is treat enough...

Seed the day

Sue Whigham celebrates the spring joy of swapping and sewing seeds I’m kicking myself for not making the effort to go to Seedy Sunday in Hove last weekend. It was the thought of a long journey on a wet and...

Cool veg for warmer days

It’s the moment Jo Arnell has been waiting for since October – time to get going in the veggie patch It’s all about to take off in the vegetable garden and the first of the summer harvests are just around...

Jobs to do in April

Jo Arnell offers helpful advice for those about to head out into their gardens

Pots of love

Jo Arnell shows how easy – and enjoyable – it is to make a Mother’s Day treat for mum yourself.

Ready, Steady…VEG!

The daffodils are up, but don’t starting planting your kitchen garden yet cautions Jo Arnell

Winter Sweet

Jo Arnell warms up the winter garden with fragranced seasonal blooms

Back To Our Roots

After a lengthly wait, Jo Arnell starts to unearth her soil-dwelling home grown veg in time for Christmas

A Touch Of Frost

Sue Whigham picks her favourite winter garden wonders that make beautiful festive decorations

Grow Your Own Hedge

Jo Arnell explains how to ensure you have pick of the crop at home...

Fall In Love

Sue Whigham admires autumn displays of glorious colour

Any Old Iron?

Jo Arnell turns salvage hunter to provide her garden with economical and beautiful focal points made from often-overlooked reclamation yard goodies

Lavender’s Blue

Sue Whigham takes a look at the fragrant world of Lavandula

The Show Can Go On!

Jo Arnell looks into glorious late summer colour

Some Like it Hot

Jo Arnell goes in search of exotic-looking plants that thrive in the great British weather

What’s New?

Sue Whigham takes a look at the latest prize-winning breeds coming to a nursery near you

Second Out, Round Two!

Jo Arnell explains that it’s never too late to get the most out of your veg garden over the summer months