Given that so many of my lovely readers are amateur gardeners, I thought you'd be interested in this fab competition that Wilko are running at the moment. There are some great prizes on offer! Wilko is looking for green fingered locals to enter the 2017 ‘Wilko Amateur Gardener Of The Year’ competition. Research suggests the UK is a secret haven of garden enthusiasts – with 88% of UK residents rating having a nice garden as important, ...
Tips for controlling plant diseases
Plant disease: it’s not the most glamorous of gardening topics, but it’s an issue that’s highly likely to have affected your garden at some point. To be honest, in the past I’ve struggled to understand and recognise plant diseases beyond a very basic level. Yes, I could tell when a plant has suffered from under or over watering, and recognise leaf scorching from bright sun, but beyond that I was pretty much out of my depth! I have noticed some ...
Review: Cobra T24C 10″ Cultivator
If you’ve got a big garden or an allotment, you’ve probably struggled at some point to dig a large patch of land manually. Digging is certainly a good workout, and some people really enjoy it, but I’m definitely not one of them! We’ve had our allotment for three years now, and while there are some raised beds which we don’t dig, there’s a good chunk of land that gets trodden down and needs digging over each year. It’s a laborious job, and ...
Fun garden games to get kids active
The arrival of warmer weather and longer days means one thing in our house: everyone spends more time in the garden. This is a really busy time of year gardening-wise, so I’m always pottering about with plants, and the kids just love being able to play outside and blow off steam. I’m a huge fan of outdoor play. After being cooped-up indoors my kids’ mood visibly lifts when they head outside for some fresh air; it’s no surprise really, given ...
Review: Qwerkity Grow Cage plant protection
Do you grow soft fruit or leafy veg in your garden or allotment? If the answer is yes, chances are you know the pain of trying to protect it from hungry wildlife! Since getting our allotment three years ago, we've tried to grow lettuces, cabbages and broccoli in our raised beds. Every year, the local pigeons have a good old feast before the plants get really established; we've tried using netting, but we've never managed to get the supports ...
Win a gift tree of your choice from The Present Tree
Welcome to a new giveaway - and it’s such a lovely one! Two lucky winners will be able to select a beautiful gift tree of their choice from The Present Tree, which will be gift-wrapped and delivered to their chosen address, ready to be planted in the garden. The Present Tree sells a range of small trees as gifts. All of their trees are grown organically, and nurtured by hand in The Present Tree’s gardens in Northern Ireland. When you place ...
Review: Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer
Do you have areas of grass in the garden that you find hard to keep under control? Even the most edge-friendly lawnmowers can struggle to reach every blade of grass, and there's nothing like straggly lawn edges to make your garden look untidy - not to mention the associated creep of grass into your borders. A grass trimmer is the perfect tool for tackling those hard-to-reach areas, and this spring I've been putting the Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass ...
Putting Baby Bio Orchid Feed & Mist to the test
You may have seen my recent post on orchid care tips, which included lots of tips for keeping orchid plants happy and healthy. In this post, I’m going to take a closer look at Baby Bio® Orchid Feed & Mist, and put it to the test against some competitor products. So why is it important to mist orchid plants? Well it’s all about creating the kind of environment that they would naturally grow in. Orchids need a high level of humidity - much ...
The Power of Plants: did you know they can do this?
The title of this post is a little bit of a challenge: just how many health benefits can you think of that plants provide? We can probably all name a few obvious ones quite easily. First up is the pleasure we get from seeing a beautiful flower or plant; they have a positive effect on our mood and can really help to cheer us up. Think about how lovely it feels to be given a bunch of flowers and you get the idea. Then there's the impact ...
Win a limited edition Emma Bridgewater vase plus a bundle of Unwins Sweet Pea seeds
With the arrival of spring just around the corner, lots of us are starting to think about planting seeds and looking forward to beautiful blooms in a few months’ time. This fab giveaway courtesy of the lovely people at Unwins is just perfect for helping you out with that! I’m giving away two prize bundles, each containing a limited edition Emma Bridgewater Sweet Pea vase and five packs of Unwins sweet pea seeds. Such a lovely prize, it would ...