News
How to Build a Sturdy Garden Swing from Scrap Timber
Harriet M. Ashford
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Offcuts were piling up behind the shed, the children wanted a swing, and the sums started to add up. Buying...
News
How ‘Meraviglia d’Inverno’ Turns Winter Into Lettuce Season
Harriet M. Ashford
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As temperatures fall, most gardens become dormant, but one lettuce variety quietly uses frost and mist as signals to grow....
News
Bathroom Cleaner as a Garden Rat Repellent: The Neighbourhood Debate
Harriet M. Ashford
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On a wet November afternoon in a peaceful British cul-de-sac, a woman in mud-streaked wellies makes her way slowly around...
News
Ancient Polyculture and Intercropping: The Farming Method Raising Yields by Up to 40%
Harriet M. Ashford
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Soil as hard as concrete, a handful of yellowing maize stems, and little else. Three consecutive drought seasons had cut...
News
The Kitchen Leftover for Orchids in Winter
Harriet M. Ashford
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Across Germany, as well as increasingly throughout the UK and US, amateur gardeners are reconsidering what should genuinely go into...
News
Can Your Landlord Harvest Fruit From Your Garden Without Permission?
Harriet M. Ashford
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The first detail she saw was not the absent fruit. It was the lavender, partly flattened beside the garden gate,...
News
How to Start a Lawn Mower in Spring
Harriet M. Ashford
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The first mild Saturday of a British spring acts rather like a communal alarm call. Across the neighbourhood, gardens begin...
News
What Tits in Your Garden Tell You About the Environment
Harriet M. Ashford
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When a tit makes your garden its regular haunt, it is doing more than providing birdsong. Its habits, population numbers...
News
What to Sow in December for Earlier UK Harvests
Harriet M. Ashford
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The allotment gates seem to bang that bit louder in December. People let go of the handles quickly, their breath...
News
How to Make Your Back Garden Less Attractive to Burglars
Harriet M. Ashford
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Your back garden may feel like the most secure and private part of your home. But that peaceful refuge can...
News
How Photoperiod Helps Plants Prepare for Seasonal Stress
Harriet M. Ashford
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The earliest clue is easy to miss. On a pleasantly cool evening, you walk outside holding a mug and sense…...
News
The £2 B&Q Block Paving Brush Head UK Gardeners Are Talking About
Harriet M. Ashford
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UK gardeners have been talking about a small, fuss-free solution tucked away on a B&Q shelf: a wire-bristled block paving...
News
How to Grow Indoor Herbs All Year Round with Grow Lights
Harriet M. Ashford
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It begins on a grim Monday near the end of January, when daylight clocks off at four and the parsley...
News
Council hedge rules: keep your boundary under 2 metres
Harriet M. Ashford
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The council notice arrived on the doormat looking much like every other: a plain envelope, official-looking type and the slight...
News
How Houseplants Improve Mental Health at Home
Harriet M. Ashford
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The morning my pothos finally made its way across the bookshelf, the living room seemed lighter, even though I had...
News
How to Stop Rats Climbing Garden Feeders With One Simple Tweak
Harriet M. Ashford
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Garden visitors are changing their habits, and it is not happening by accident. In gardens across the country, opportunistic rodents...
News
Cold Plunges in British Back Gardens: What Doctors Really Say
Harriet M. Ashford
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A curious new feature is turning up behind British bay windows and jasmine-covered trellises: waist-high barrels and streamlined fibreglass pods...
News
How Pine Needles Keep Soil Acidic for Blue Hydrangeas and Blueberries
Harriet M. Ashford
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Blue petals, as cool as sea glass, floated above soil alive with tiny creatures-woodlice, fine fungal threads and a timid...
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Garden timing: why less can grow more
Harriet M. Ashford
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The bag of fertiliser felt far heavier than I recalled. I hauled it over the lawn as though I were...
News
Mulch Mistakes That Are Slowly Stressing Your Garden
Harriet M. Ashford
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On a Saturday morning scented with damp earth and coffee, Emma stood at the centre of her back garden, looking...
News
How floor composting turns garden waste into living soil
Harriet M. Ashford
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What may appear untidy on the surface is actually a carefully balanced engine of life below ground, driven by worms,...
