How To Garden
Whether you’re newbie, extending tentative green-ish fingers into the soil, or a well-seasoned grower, there’s always something new to learn. My ‘How to Garden’ section has lots of hints and tips that I’ve amassed from over 50 years of gardening that I want to share with you through the written word as well as videos from my YouTube channel.
Scroll down the page for a few general pieces on gardening. But for more in depth detail on specific topics I’ve divided the content into three, coloured coded sections. Simply click on one of the headings below, or navigate using the headings in the pull-down menu at the top of each page…
Gardening for health, wellbeing and nature
Could I make the case that you make gardening your go-to pastime for your own health and wellbeing? Perhaps you could set yourself the challenge of taking your first steps in gardening, of growing more of your own food or of creating a haven for beleaguered wildlife. Whatever you choose to do it’s certain to be good for both .....
Garden jobs for late-winter days
Whenever there are rainy days on the menu, my thoughts turn to doing some more seed sowing. I’ve got a number of packets that my dear friend Matt Biggs sent me - we’ve been .....
What can I do with my Christmas tree
I’m always shocked to see the skeletal remains of Christmas trees on the streets of towns and cities after Twelfth Night. It seems all the more poignant when you consider the number of years taken .....
What’s the point of variegated plants
A walk around any garden centre at this time of year will reveal a number of variegated, evergreen shrubs and perennials that catch the eye. And on a recent trip to my branch of .....
Off with their heads? Not yet
Many gardeners seem to have an in-built tidiness gene and go out armed with the secateurs to chop back things that they think look messy. This not only leaves you with precious little to .....
Carnivorous plants – a taste for flies
Flies aren’t much of a nuisance in the UK at this time of year, but in the summer we seem to get more than our fair share buzzing around here in rural Dorset. And .....
Get to know your trees
We tend to take trees for granted in our garden, parks and countryside. And in winter, devoid of leaves, you may pay them even less attention. But outlined against a bright blue sky on a sunny day, .....