Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Woman's Weekly Living Series

GARDENERS: Janet and steve Howell. LOCATION: Brooklyn, endon, staffordshire. LANDSCAPED: a builder excavated 100 tonnes of soil and rubble from the rear garden in 1991, creating a broad 2m-wide terrace between the cottage and new retaining walls built from the distinctive local stone. He then built steps leading up the hillside plot, and laid a lawn. SPECIAL FEATURES: a front garden with a succession of summer flowers; shady side courtyards with collections of hostas and primulas; a small waterfall and pond; a summerhouse; deep borders of beautifully-tended plants; and different seating areas throughout. ASPECT: the front garden faces south. SOILTYPE: neutral, fertile and well-drained. PROBLEMS: originally, the rear hillside descended to within 1m of the back wall of the house, making this area feel very claustrophobic. it was an uneven…

A thriving garden is full of the sight and sounds of wildlife – of the dawn chorus, bees humming, butterflies fluttering and any number of mysterious nocturnal scuttlings and rustlings. A welcoming garden is one that provides safe habitats to rest, nest or hibernate; water sources, and abundant supplies of nectar-rich plants to feed on. In spring, nectar is essential for providing butterflies and moths with the energy to refuel after hibernation and find a mate, while in autumn it helps build up their reserves before hibernation or migrating back to warmer climes. Honeybees, on the other hand, collect nectar and pollen as food for the entire colony of the hive and, almost as a by-product, pollinate flowers in the process. In recent years, the decline of butterflies and bees…

Many of the birds and bees, bugs and creepy-crawlies in your garden are doing important work maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Support them by gardening in a wildlife-friendly way... ✿ Instead of fencing, plant a native hedgerow to attract beneficial insects that feed on common garden pests – for example, lacewing and ladybird larvae feed on greenfly, while hoverflies feed on caterpillars ✿ Keep aphids, whiteflies, mites and black spot off your plants by making a natural insecticide spray based on neem oil (see discoverneem.com). ✿ To control mildew on plants such as asters, Replace fungicides with a garlic-based spray and use a seaweed-based feed for the foliage. ✿ Protect food crops from aphids with ‘trap’ plants such as nasturtiums or sunflowers – both lure aphids away. ✿ A box filled…

In 1987, RHS Garden Wisley received National Collection status for three genera of heather – Erica, Calluna and Daboecia. In total, we have over 950 different cultivars and 162 of these are endangered. The Garden works closely with the charity Plant Heritage, whose National Plant Collection scheme manages organisations or individuals who have undertaken to document, develop and preserve a comprehensive collection of a particular group of plants in trust for the future. It’s important for this historic collection to be maintained as a resource of plant material that can be propagated, preventing rare cultivars from being lost forever. The RHS aims to ensure all its heathers are grown well and to build the collection to over 1,000 cultivars.…

Cauliflowers are difficult to grow well as they require a long steady growing season with plenty of moisture. Problems occur during dry spells or when transplanting is delayed. To overcome this, ensure plants are always well watered, especially when first planted out and during the summer months. Applying well-rotted manure in the autumn to the veg beds will help retain moisture levels and also provide good nutrients to the plants. When transplanting plants into their final positions, ensure they are planted deep and the soil firmed up well around the base. Water regularly until established.…

Stephanie Hafferty is an organic kitchen-gardener who uses ‘no-dig’ methods. This involves applying a thick layer of compost or rotted manure to veg plots to trap in moisture and encourage worms to aerate the soil. It cuts down on time, money and weeds and results in healthier soil. ‘I converted my allotment to no-dig in 2009,’ says Stephanie. ‘Since then, my plot has been productive year round.’ Stephanie writes a blog NoDigHome.com and helped set up Homeacres, Somerset, with author and no-dig guru Charles Dowding (charles dowding.co.uk). Their book, the No Dig Organic Home and Garden, includes ideas for sustainable living. Stephanie will be speaking at RHS Garden Wisley Flower Show on 3, 5 and 6 September. Summer vegetable bhajis These incredibly moreish spicy snacks come from Stephanie’s book, The Creative…

Fat, furry and buzzing busily, a bumblebee is easily distinguished from its slimmer, quieter cousin, the honeybee, which has a gold and brown striped abdomen that resembles a wasp’s. While there are some 25 different species of bumblebee in the UK, there is only one species of honeybee throughout Europe and most live in hives ruled by a queen, where the nectar they collect becomes honey. Both kinds of bee only tend to sting if aggravated, but only honeybees die after stinging. Populations of both are in decline, due to disease, a shortage of flowers and lack of habitats.…

1 Mask off a band two-thirds of the way down from the lip of a pot and paint red. 2 Do this for all three pots and leave to dry. 3 Remove the tape when dry and paint the rest of each pot white. Leave to dry. 4 Stack the pots on top of each other from biggest to smallest with smallest on top. They should sit nicely together to form the tower of your lighthouse. 5 Paint black rectangles on each pot to look like doors, as pictured. 6 Add a glass jam jar with a tealight inside to sit atop your tower. MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT 3 terracotta pots with lip edge of different sizes (small, medium and large) ✿ Water-resistant paint in red, white and black ✿ Paintbrushes…

Upon moving into a new home, people invariably focus on refurbishing the interior, leaving little time nor budget to spend on the garden. It’s an opportunity missed. A room can be repainted in a weekend, whereas a garden takes years to establish and mature and, the earlier work starts, the sooner an outdoor space becomes an inviting extension of the home. It was the actress Audrey Hepburn, whose lifelong love of gardening started when she was a little girl, who said, ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’ And that means starting today, even if it is just to plant a tree and a handful of evergreen shrubs as a first step towards creating a framework for the future. One potential pitfall of a piecemeal approach is that…

The rigid, formal layouts of early Victorian parterres and carpet bedding schemes slowly gave way to a more relaxed style as the influence of gardeners like William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll came into play from the 1870s onwards. Robinson advocated wild gardens and popularised the mixed herbaceous border. In the same period, Jekyll designed gardens using hardy plants in colourful borders. Both shunned the use of tender plants that had to be overwintered in a glasshouse and brought out for summer bedding displays. Their ideas about gardening led to the popularity of cottage gardens – and the gardens of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1920s and 30s, exemplified Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent, and Hidcote, in Gloucestershire. Some aspects of Victorian gardening have survived, such as formal bedding displays.…

Summer Summer types can be sown in cold frames during September and planted out early spring. They can also be sown indoors in January or outdoors in April, reaching maturity from June through to August. Autumn  Autumn types can be sown mid to late spring in a glasshouse or light windowsill and planted out late spring/early summer. Autumn types are ready to harvest from late summer to early autumn, 21-23 weeks after sowing. Winter Winter types are sown in late spring and planted out in mid-summer. Winter types take the longest to mature and will be ready to harvest the following spring, around 46-50 weeks after sowing.…

Snips & cuts Q How do I take semi-ripe cuttings for propagating my evergreen plants, and when is the best time to do it? A Popular evergreen garden plants such as choisya, lavender, sage and rosemary are easily propagated until October. Snip 8-10cm lengths of shoot, remove leaves from the lower half and insert up to the lowest leaves into pots or trays of a cutting medium of 50:50 multipurpose compost and coarse grit. Ideally, dip the ends of the cuttings in a rooting compound containing IBA. Water, cover with plastic sheet or put in a clear plastic bag or cover in a light but not sunny place. Rooting might not occur until next June but, once roots have formed, gradually remove the polythene and, after two weeks, pot up…

Even in the depths of winter, overwintering queens and worker bees emerge on warm days in search of food, so a continual supply of nectar can be provided with small flowering bulbs such as daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses and hyacinths. Perennial wallflowers provide one of the most reliable sources, with bushy evergreen varieties such as ‘Winter Orchid’ flowering from midwinter until late spring, while ‘Bowles Mauve’, with its distinctive grey leaves and vivid mauve spikes, flowers pretty much every month of the year, especially in full sun.…

Following a brief period of being considered by some gardeners as dated and unfashionable heather is now back in the spotlight. This is especially true at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, where its Heather Garden has undergone an extensive redevelopment to showcase the benefits of this plant all year round. Bring rugged landscapes to your garden on a smaller scale Here, Peter Jones, Garden Manager at RHS Garden Wisley discusses the exciting ongoing project and what visitors to the world-class garden can expect to see in the coming months. Heathers have been an integral part of RHS Garden Wisley’s planting for many decades, with there being a dedicated heather area on the site since the 1920s. Since then, as the Garden has grown and developed vastly, so too has its…