In The Garden

Foxglove tree in bloom! I’ve always admired the “Foxglove tree”, Paulownia tomentosa with its lilac coloured flowers that hang in clusters and when I was at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival earlier in May I saw a fantastic specimen in a garden that was full of flower. Paulownia come from E. Asia and although they […]

This year was a good apple crop and by now the fruits should have all been picked from the trees. It you are storing some, check the fruits every week or so and remove any that are starting to rot, otherwise it will spread to the other apples. In a cool, dark place many varieties […]

Make sure that your onions are in store now after drying in the sunshine. They should last well into the winter – or try making Jill’s onion marmalade with the short keepers! Penstemons don’t like cold, wet winters so as a safe guard it’s a good idea to take a few cuttings now just in […]

Mid-summer and the garden is looking good with plenty of colour and interest. I still think one of the best ways to add colour to the garden is with a few hanging baskets and planted containers filled with summer bedding plants. When positioned around the house or patio the bright colours and lush planting really […]

If you grow gooseberries in your garden look out for the pesky sawfly larvae that devour the foliage in a matter of days. The small caterpillar-like grubs can appear at various times through the summer and can be controlled by hand picking, spraying with an insecticide such as Westland’s Resolver Bug Killer or by applying […]