Friday , March 29 2024

Daisy Wainwright

Inspiration for First Time Gardeners

Becoming the owner of a garden can be an exiting and daunting experience. First-timers probably have big ambitions for their garden, but realising those dreams is difficult without the know-how. All too often, newbie gardeners play it safe and boring due to a lack of confidence in their abilities. Research …

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Designer Gardens to Suit You

Gardens, like homes, tend to reflect the lives of those who live in it. Sun worshippers will have garden furniture for sunbathing and dining, more private residents may opt for tall privet bushes to shield them from unwanted attention, while those used to entertaining might plump for more lavish displays, …

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Keep your kids dog-safe

Reports of savage dog attacks are rarely out of the headlines these days. Unsurprisingly, this leaves many parents worrying about the safety of their children around “man’s best friend”. Just how safe are our canine chums? Mutual respect between human and canine lies at the heart of ensuring you have …

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Tubs and Troughs

It’s hard to be enthusiastic about gardening when the weather is grey and miserable. But think ahead to what a few splashes of localised colour will do to brighten your back garden and lift your spirits when the days improve. There’s no simpler way of perking up the smallest garden …

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Birds face climate change crisis

When most of us think of climate change we often imagine melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels and sweltering summers. However it’s not just the landscapes that will be changing. Our skies could alter dramatically as the hotter temperatures push birds further north and some to the brink of …

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Gardening made easy

What do you see when you open the back door? Is your back garden more jungle than Kew? It may seem like a daunting task getting your garden ready for summer and the customary array of BBQs and family get-togethers, but don’t panic, garden tool manufacturer Black & Decker is …

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Devon’s donkey paradise

Just outside the picturesque seaside town of Sidmouth in Devon, within an oasis of tranquil unspoilt farmland and countryside, sits the Donkey Sanctuary. Here, abandoned, abused and unwanted donkeys find care, food, companionship and shelter. For nearly 40 years this sanctuary has provided a safe haven to over 400 of …

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Grow Your Garden’s Value

When most of us want to sell our home we focus on what we can do inside it, but the difference you make on the outside can prove extremely profitable. A well-kept garden can be a growing investment for your property, boosting its value by up to 10 per cent, …

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Grow your own spuds

Concerns over pesticides and genetically modified crops have got many people thinking about growing their own fruit and vegetables. But you don’t have to be green-fingered or even have a garden to start growing your own food. Potatoes can be grown from a sack with little to no effort at …

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Magic tricks for small gardens

Magic is all about illusion. When it comes to making a small space look larger, there are loads of ideas to trick the eye into a fooled sense of space. Gardening for small spaces borrows many tricks of the trade from interior design and the world of art, both of …

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Gardening for the birds

Gardens can be designed and grown for the enjoyment of local wildlife as well as your own. A garden wildlife sanctuary can attract a continuous variety of birds throughout the seasons. Birds and butterflies are the most popular and easiest of all wildlife to attract if you provide food, water, …

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Death trap chimneys

Open fireplaces can be beautiful, especially on a crisp winter day, but if your fire is not in use or has not been cleaned for some time you could have a nasty surprise waiting for you as chimney stacks can also be a death trap for birds. Often looking for …

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A shedload of value

Gone are the days when dads pottered about in the garden shed, tinkering with machinery or finding new ways to keep unwanted insects off their vegetable patch. Don’t get us wrong, there’s no doubt that men still use the garden shed as a refuge – a means of escaping the …

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Four seasons garden

Do you enviously look across to your neighbour’s garden and wonder why it always seems to have a selection of flowers and foliage in bloom, no matter what the season? Well now you too can enjoy the benefits of garden that offers year round floral displays -all it takes is …

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Crazy talking with plants

Back in the 1970s, talking, singing or even playing plants their own music was kitsch. Thirty years on, are your house and garden plants suffering in silence? Or do you secretly sing them a little ditto or tell them a story? You can expect that a few gardeners have the …

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A useful garden: growing medicinal herbs

William Morris once said “have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful and do not believe to be beautiful.”  In many ways the same could be said of a garden, although we tend to keep along the lines of more beautiful than useful these days. …

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What makes the perfect family garden?

When considering the perfect garden most of us want perfect manicured lawns, pretty, neat flower beds and perhaps a charming water feature.  But how useable is a garden where everything has its place?  And how much can kids enjoy it? The typical British garden is all about a nice patch …

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Cheap as chicks

Imagine you are locked in a tiny cage with ten other people and every time you try to stretch your arms or legs, you can’t because you’re so tightly squashed together. Now imagine you are forced to defecate and urinate where you stand and then have to sleep there too. …

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Grow your own strawberries

At the time of year when Wimbledon is in full swing, evenings stay light until 10pm and there’s nothing more satisfying than a BBQ in the garden accompanied by a bottle of light summer ale, there’s one fruit on the minds of allotmenteers – the humble British strawberry. For those …

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Cracking Down on vivisection

Every year millions of animals are used in scientific experiments for a range of substances including, medicine, detergents and food additives. However, in recent years the number of animals used for testing soared, sparking outrage from animal welfare charity the RSPCA. Statistics released by the Home Office show that in …

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