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Percy Thrower a Gardening Celebrity

Percy Thrower has been remembered as a celebrity gardener since he started on radio ‘Gardening Club’ in 1956

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John Cushnie 1943-2009

John Cushnie 1943-2009 John Cushnie the landscape gardener, author and radio pundit has died suddenly from a heart attack on 31 December 2009 at the age of 66. For the last 17 years John was a regular panelist on Gardeners’ Question Time, the Hedge Man on Radio 2’s Chris Evans Show, and presented Greenmount Garden [...]

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Top Ten Plant Hunters

Plant hunters from the last 3 centuries have some fascinating stories to inform modern gardeners

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Mothers Day for Gardeners

A mother is for life, not just for Mothering Sunday, so you can treat her at any time of year with an item from this list of tips and ideas

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Gardeners Charities

Charity begins not at home but in the garden! Greenfingers is a small charity which is dedicated to creating magical gardens for children’s hospices around the UK. Thrive’s aim is to enable positive change in the lives of disabled and disadvantaged people through the use of gardening. Trellis is the national Scottish charity that supports, [...]

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Who is Growing in Your Garden?

Terry Wogan,  King Edward VII, Charlies Angels, Alan Titchmarsh and Charles Unwin all have had Sweet Peas named after them and that is a lot easier to say than Lathyrus Odoratus. So surprise your neighbours with a patch of Terry Wogans or 3 Charlies Angels. Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Esther Read’  now referred to like many Shasta [...]

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Russell Lupin and Lupin Origins

Photo cc by Magnio Originally Lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus) were introduced into Britain from North America in 1826. They had the blue flowered spikes we occasionally saw on railway embankments with some whiter flowers. Fast forward to 1937 and the RHS awarded its highest honour to a ‘ jobbing gardener’ George Russell for developing a strain [...]

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Capability Brown Landscape Gardener

Lancelot Brown 1716 – 1783 Lancelot Brown is the most famous gardener who popularised English landscape design. Lancelot Brown’s nickname ‘Capability’ came from his saying about an estate he was commissioned to work on ‘It has great capabilities’ . During his life he was Sheriff of Huntingdon, gardener to King George III, architect and innovator [...]

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Acid or Alkaline Soil Improvers

Acidity and alkalinity are measured on a pH scale. Below pH 7.0 is verging towards acidic so pH 4.5 is very acid. Test kits are available from many sources. Increasing Alkalinity. For vegetables a pH of around 6.5 is ideal and to achieve this it may be necessary to add some lime into the top [...]

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Easy Edible Hedge

You can plant your own edible hedge now until late March which will give you a supply of edible fruit and berries for years to come. Bare rooted plants are very reasonably priced. Easy Step by Step Hedge Clear the ground to remove weeds and old roots by digging or using Glyphosphate based weedkiller. Leave [...]

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