Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Garden Answers

Peruvian lily or alstroemeria is a florist’s favourite with gorgeous, long-lasting lily-like blooms in a panoply of vibrant shades as well as soft pastels, the petals often prettily marked with contrasting colours. For the garden, this is a handsome and free-flowering herbaceous perennial that blooms magnificently right through from late spring until early autumn. With a range of sizes, the sheer flower power of alstroemerias is perfect for pepping up every part of a sunny border as well as being great for growing in pots. Plus, with a long vase life, it’s unbeatable as a home-grown cut flower. The name of Peruvian lily highlights its South American origins, although alstroemerias come from a wider area of the continent including Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. While there are around 50 species, today…

IN THE GARDEN WITH… Lise & Christopher White AT Hookshouse Pottery, Hookshouse Lane, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8TZ GARDEN SIZE 1.5 acres SITE Open and sunny SOIL Forest marble (a limestone and clay mix) FEATURES Walled cottage garden with flowing lawns and borders; productive kitchen garden; wildflower meadow; large pond; pottery workshop VISIT Open for NGS on June 30, 1.30–5.30pm; Entry £5 (ngs.org.uk or hookshousepottery.co.uk) Creating an English garden had always been a dream for French-born Lise White and when she moved to Hookshouse in Gloucestershire in 1974 with husband Christopher she had plenty of land to play with. Over time they moulded the flat plot into a rolling landscape of intriguing viewpoints, adding elevation with towering summer perennials that add dizzying high drama to deep, curving borders. The garden started…

Fact file Name: Alice Whitehead Location: Northampton Patch type: Urban allotment and garden Size: Two standard-sized allotments and terraced street garden (about 600 square metres or 717 square yards) Soil: Clay allotment; garden loam Aspect: East/west-facing allotment; north-facing garden Top 5 crops: Courgette, rainbow chard, orach, tomatoes, potatoes Failures: Edamame, melon, cauliflower, asparagus Organic tip: Try a no-dig gardening method – simply hoe off annual weeds and let worms and nature do the rest Find out more: Instagram/ Facebook/Twitter @allotmentalice July is the most flavoursome month at my plot. Full of sun-warmed tomatoes, popping with seeds and a tangy aroma. From tiny cherries to tangerine-coloured plums, yellow pears and bulbous beefsteaks - tomatoes of all different shapes and sizes form a staple part of my urban garden and allotment during…

ON THE MARKET TILTING PARASOLS VONHAUS 2.7M STEEL GARDEN PARASOL £49.99 Polyester, powder-coated steel, 2.7m diameter, four colours MAZE LIVING 2.7M ROUND GARDEN PARASOL £99 Polyester, powder-coated aluminium, 2.7m diameter, two colours LAZY SUSAN PARASOL £199.95 Acrylic, aluminium, 2.5m or 2.7m diameter for the same price, four colours LIVING AND HOME 3M BACKYARD SUNSHADE PARASOL £49.99 Polyester, metal, 3m diameter, six colours NOVA ANTIGUA 2.7M ROUND ALUMINIUM PARASOL £54.99 Polyester, 2.7m diameter, six colours abrasio LAURA JAMES PREMIUM SQUARE 2.2M PARASOL £79.99 Polyester, powder-coated steel, 2.2x2.2m, LED lights JYSK AGGER MARKET PARASOL £50 Polyester, powder-coated aluminium, 3m diameter, seven colours GARDENESQUE FRINGE PARASOL £229.99 Polyester, ash, 1.8m diameter, metal base, three designs…

Buy one for £19.99 and get one FREE! Bringing a taste of paradise to your garden, the Canary Island date palm is an architectural beauty that will give your patio a holiday feel for years to come! With its spectacular fan-shaped foliage, Phoenix canariensis provides a dramatic impact to any garden.. Yet, despite its tropical origins, this exotic plant thrives in the UK and is winter hardy to -6C. It loves a sunny position in the garden and suits growing in patio pots. Supplied as an established plant, approx. 60–80cm tall in a 14cm pot, ready to plant. ● Buy one Phoenix canariensis Canary Island date palm for £19.99* and get one free – save £19.99; with offer code 680005 *plus £6.99 postage OTHER MONEY-SAVING OFFERS! BOXWOOD ACORN ROUND PLANTER…

MOW PATHS IN GRASS Regular lawnmowing helps provide a soft place to sit and soak up the sun, or for children to play games but if these aren’t priorities, try letting it go. Leave the lawn unmown to allow grasses to flower, and give wildflowers the chance to develop. Mow some curvy paths through to make it into a feature and allow you to get from A to B. Even just a small unmown patch will be humming with wildlife. Think twice about doing this though, if you are prone to hayfever triggered by grass pollen. KEEP FLOATING POND PLANTS IN CHECK A well-looked after pond, with clear water and a bubbling water feature makes a calming place to unwind in summer. A few small tasks will keep it looking…

1 Food for the adults Most adult butterflies and moths drink nectar but only a few flowers are of the right shape for their long, drinking-straw mouthparts. It means careful choice makes all the difference, growing favourites such as Verbena bonariensis, knapweeds, scabiouses, and iceplant (hylotelephium). Be careful with the most famous butterfly plant, buddleia, as it can be invasive, but there is no denying its value for butterflies. Various sterile varieties are being developed which will stop all that seed spreading. 2 Food for the caterpillars Each species of moth and butterfly has a limited range of plants its caterpillars will eat, and most are native plants. For example, the common blue eats bird’s-foot trefoil, the orange-tip eats garlic mustard and lady’s-smock, and the holly blue uses holly and…

GARDEN TO VISIT The Laskett The Laskett, a magical four-acre garden between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye is a scrapbook of memories of people and places covering half a century. The memories are those of Sir Roy Strong and his late wife Julia Trevelyan Oman, who chose to preserve them with a garden where plants, opulent statues and handsome urns come together as a living record of their own achievements and landmarks they love. Now in the care of the charity Perennial, the garden was a personal creation but is open to the public. Influenced among other things by Italy and the arts, a theatrical experience awaits. The eight long vistas and 24 different garden rooms (housing 18 dramatic features) are filled with characters and stories. Formal gardens with shaped topiary rub…

Caring for your herb container Container herb gardens are a great way to enjoy the scent and taste of culinary herbs if you don’t have much space. If you can, plant groups of herbs that have similar requirements together. Mint and chives do well in shade whereas thyme, oregano and basil are Mediterrannean herbs that need full sun and a freely draining compost. Using peat-free compost in large containers takes care, as it holds on to moisture for longer than peat compost and it’s easy to therefore over water the plants. If the surface looks dry, push your finger down into the compost 5cm to see if its still damp below. If that also seems dry, water lightly. You want to avoid watering so heavily that water starts running out…

CLUES ACROSS 1 Melissa officinalis or lemon - - - - citrus-scented bushy perennial herb (4) 3 Mat-forming genus commonly known as rock cress (6) 7 Scarlet blooming cardinal flower botanically named - - - - - - - cardinalis (7) 8 Correa ‘- - - - -Bells’ – spreading evergreen cultivar of the Australian fuchsia (5) 9 Black-eyed - - - - -, country name for Rudbeckia hirta (5) 11 Structure resembling a leaf as in the scarlet part of poinsettia foliage (5) 13 Young shoot of a tree often cut for use as a graft (5) 15 Gladiolus cultivar sharing its name with ‘- - - - - - -Houston’, late US songstress (7) 16 ‘- - - - - -MacGregor’, Scottish outlaw and a self-seeding bellis cultivar…

Patio project BURNING EMBERS This container of sultry perennials turns up the heat on a warm summer evening. The glowing coral-red flowers of salvia ‘Ember’s Wish’ and heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’ are offset by the mellow but warm mauve flowers of Campanula portenschlagiana ‘Sago’, topped by dancing thalictrum flowers. This cultivar, ‘Black Stockings’, has elegant black stems, as does the tiarella, which give the arrangement an extra element of shadowy and chic style. GET THE LOOK Shopping... Tropical and exotic prints to recreate the holiday feel LANDSCAPING Raby Castle GARDEN MAKEOVER A new walled garden and nine-tier grass amphitheatre are just some of the extensive new landscaping projects under way at Raby Castle, a historic site in County Durham. The remodelled Walled Garden has been deisgned by world-renowned garden designer Luciano…

Plants will bring natural colour to your garden but if you’re short on space or good growing conditions, there is a cheat’s way to add some rainbow shades – with paint. Outdoor paints have moved far beyond the spectrum of creosote orange and forest green. You can now buy almost any shade, from pale grey to hot pink, directly off the shelf, or if you’re looking for something really different – ahot pink for instance – you can also have the outdoor paint made up in larger DIY stores, just as you would an indoor emulsion. And even if you have smartly painted furniture and fences, after a few years the colour inevitably starts to fade or rust begins to show through, making a revamp not just necessary but also…

YEAR ROUND colour JULY Handling strong colours in the garden is ninety-nine percent bravado. If you want to combine bright contrasting flowers then make it look deliberate and you can get away with pretty much anything! In this planting the warm oranges of crocosmia and kniphofia have been set against isolated pools of pink and scarlet, and their bonfire tones look all the better for it. In fact the same planting without these contrasting splashes would drift into being rather beige. This is one high summer border that no one is going to miss. Colour palette Red, orange, yellow, purple, pink 3easy steps STEP 1 DESIGN YOUR BORDER STEP 2 CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLANTS KNIPHOFIA ‘ROYAL STANDARD’ Tall with grass like foliage and amber buds opening to yellow July to…

PHONE 01858 438884 QUOTE AJAA OR VISIT greatmagazines. co.uk/gardenanswers At Garden Answers magazine our aim is to help you make the most of your outdoor space by creating your perfect garden – not just for summer, but all year round. Now’s the perfect time to become a subscriber. This rich source of gardening ideas and inspiration is delivered direct to your door, 13 times a year, with a free packet of seeds with every issue. Or try our new print and digital membership package, which allows you to enjoy additional rewards and discounts. Simply scan the QR code (below on the left hand page) with your smartphone or tablet camera to find out more. Sign up to Garden Answers by 18 July 2023 – it’s a perfect treat for you,…

Our experts GEOFF STEBBINGS gives expert answers to all your gardening problems. Geoff is an author and gardening writer, and was head gardener at Myddelton House, north London. GEOFF HODGE will be answering subscriber questions in our new Live Zoom Q&A events. Geoff is a horticultural author, radio broadcaster and speaker, and former online editor for the RHS. IAN HODGSON casts an expert eye over unruly borders, providing advice on how to revamp them. Ian is author of Great Gardens, in association with the Society of Garden Designers. CONTACT US Send us your queries! By post: Garden Answers, Bauer Media, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Email: gardenanswers@bauermedia.co.uk Web: www.gardenanswersmagazine. co.uk Social media: Find us on Facebook as Garden Answers Twitter @GardenAnswers Instagram as gardenanswers QWhy do my three…

1 Santolina chamaecyparissus Compact rounded shrub with woolly young shoots and aromatic, silvery foliage when crushed. Yellow button-like flowers in summer hover on wiry stems. Full sun. H50cm (20in) S1m (3ft 3in) 2 Phlomistuberosa ‘Amazone’ Tall, dark purple, upright and branching stems hold whorls of hooded, lilac-pink flowers in summer, in candelabra-like tiers, above heart-shaped foliage. Full sun. H1.2m (4ft) S90cm (3ft) 3 Cupressus sempervirens ‘Totem’ Slower growing than ‘Pyramidalis’ Italian cypress, this makes an architectural evergreen column. Trim to required height and width. Full sun. H12m (40ft) S1.2m (4ft) 4 Erigeron karvinskianus ‘Lavender Lady’ Self-seeding dainty cottage perennial for gravel paths and walls blooms all summer with white flowers fading to pink and purple. Full sun. H30cm (12in) S40cm (16in) 5 Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Cassian’s Choice’ Ornamental…

Iris ‘War Chief’ has the wow factor! Tilly Cope, by email Elegant tree peony. Janet Simpson, Ely, Cambs Roses are my favourite. June Deaton, by email My front garden tulips brightened up the street. Tracey Clarke, Brayton Tulips are so beautiful, even as they go over. Chris Tait, Hampshire ‘Rembrandt’ tulips glowing in the sunshine. Elin Cullen, Wales Rhodo ‘Mrs G WLeak’. Ann Heming, by email Gorgeous iris get my vote. Phil Smith, North Wales Raindrops on peony – fab! Kirstie Turner, by email Prize photo Short-lived wonder I had to capture this dragonfly warming up on my black salix. I believe it’s a broad bodied chaser, which spends up to three years in its nymph stage, then only about a month as an adult, which seems a shame for…

To experience first-hand the most powerful symbol of humankind’s troubled relationship with nature, just step into your local supermarket. Thanks to hyper-efficient supply chains on an incomprehensibly immense scale, you can walk into your mega-mart of choice, in any month of the year, and fill a trolley full of fruit and vegetables. Aubergines in April? Why not! Asparagus in October? Sure thing! We take this for granted, but it’s no mean feat. Late frosts, wet winters, long droughts – these are mere trivialities in our brave new world. Who cares about unseasonable weather when you can sever your relationship with seasonality altogether? But for all its undeniable dependability, this ruthless efficiency comes at a cost. As well as the cost to growers – both in this country and the world…