Making a compost heap is such a positive thing to do. People with compost heaps enjoy fabulous compost delivered straight to their gardens and allotments, for free! Save money on council green bins and spare yourself weekend trips to the tip by starting a compost bin. Homemade compost enriches our soils and benefits nature and the environment.
If you want to enjoy spring flowers like daffodils and alliums in your garden next year, then this is the time to take action and get busy planting bulbs! When visiting garden centres to buy bulbs, choose plump and firm, healthy bulbs and avoid purchasing dried out and desiccated bulbs, as these won’t amount to anything.
My heart is full of love for butterflies, so I’m encouraging everyone to take part in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, which starts on Friday 17th July 2026 and runs until Sunday 9th August 2026.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are beautiful, reliable plants that flower for ages, their attractive blooms provide an abundance of nectar for bees and butterflies. Plus, chives produce a regular supply of tasty leaves and flowers from May until the end of summer – they’re such great value plants! In addition to all of the above, chives flourish in containers of peat-free compost or will thrive planted in any soil (apart from waterlogged soils) in a sunny or partially shaded site.
First things first, if you’ve not sown any courgette seeds yet, don’t miss this chance – sow seeds now! I like to sow a few courgette seeds outdoors in May, then I sow a couple of extra seeds at the start June, and two more towards the end of June. Staggering seed sowings ensures a steady supply of courgettes from summer until the frosts arrive in autumn.
If you’re visiting the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show (or watching the television coverage) this week, look out for Plant Heritage who will be unveiling their first ever Chelsea Garden when this prestigious Flower Show opens to the public on 19th May 2026! At the show, you can also meet the Plant Heritage team inside the Great Pavilion on stand GP088, selling seeds collected by National Collection holders and Plant Heritage Members.
I dedicate a substantial amount of my time and energy into running gardening trials, searching for the top-performing and best tasting vegetables. I share the results in my columns to help my readers discover the best vegetable varieties on the market. If you sow seeds I recommend and follow my gardening advice, I hope this year you’ll enjoy your most successful growing season yet!
Bluebells (known by their botanical name, Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are one of our most beautiful British native wildflowers. In April, these graceful and elegant plants bring irrepressible delight and joy to our country walks, as their nodding flower stems and sweetly scented, bell-shaped flowers form seas of intense blue beneath the trees of many UK woodlands. Experience this majesty yourself – take an uplifting walk alongside serene carpets of bluebells at Winkworth Arboretum, in Godalming or visit another magnificent part of the UK where you can see bluebells.
Nothing beats growing plants in the soil. Plants are usually happiest growing in the ground, which makes us happier too, as watering is so much easier and our soil-grown plants tend to be stronger and healthier. We’re not all fortunate enough to have access to the soil, but thankfully, patio and balcony gardeners’ dreams can be successfully fulfilled with the right choice of containers, growing media, and vegetable varieties.
I get such a thrill from writing about plants that I know are super-star performers, as I’ve trialled and tested them over a number of years. The thought of a lovely reader discovering an exquisite plant that flourishes in their garden fills me with happiness! Clematis ‘Hågelby Pink’ is a stand-out clematis from my Clematis Trial; this strong-growing, yet mild-mannered climber is incredibly floriferous.
Sweet peas are one of summer’s many prized delights! These exquisite, frilly flowers have a sweet and heady, musky fragrance, which gently envelops the garden with its charm. Sweet peas are floriferous plants that produce divine cut flowers. If you want to enjoy sweet pea flowers this summer, springtime is the ideal time to sow seeds!
Sweet peas seeds can be sown directly in the soil now, but to grow the best sweet pea plants I recommend sowing seeds in good quality, peat-free growing mediums, in deep pots.
Plant Heritage is a charitable organisation that works to safeguard and conserve the diversity of our garden plants by encouraging the growing, propagation, and distribution of plants. National Collection holders are key to Plant Heritage’s aims, they hold documented, registered plant collections, featuring plants that are proactively propagated and conserved. Many popular groups of plants are currently without the protection of a National Collection holder, including some fabulous plants that attract a wide range of fascinating bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and other important pollinators to our gardens.
May is a totally thrilling month, as there are just so many exciting plants that we can grow from seed now! Courgettes (Cucurbita pepo) are quick-growing plants that can be very productive, making them desirable additions to our gardens and allotments. Varieties vary in their colour, texture, flavour, and productivity, so it’s worth taking the time to do some research before you order your seeds.
Red Mason Bees emerge from hibernation this month. These bees don’t sting. Male Red Mason Bees have white hairy faces, they awaken first, followed by the dark-faced females; both are ginger in colour. After mating, the female Red Mason Bee chooses a nest site, often a hole in a wall, a bee brick, old bramble stem, or nest box. The female works tirelessly gathering mud to construct a chamber in the back of a hollow stem or tube.
April is such a wonderful month to sow seeds of edible plants, as it’s possible to grow almost anything from seed at this exciting time of year! Make the effort to get out in your garden or allotment now and benefit from the opportunity to sow seeds of carrots, parsnips, globe artichokes, and other edible plants that take more time than others to grow and develop.
I want to inspire you to support nature and Surrey’s conservation groups and make a positive difference for the Small Blue Butterfly by growing Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) in your garden, or at your school, workplace, or allotment.
The Small Blue Butterfly is Britain’s smallest butterfly; it was once common in Surrey. This rarity is classified with Near Threatened status by the IUCN Red List.
I adore tomatoes and devote a phenomenal amount of energy into running Tomato Trials in my never-ending search for the best tasting tomatoes. I snap up the tomato varieties that the seed catalogues declare are the best and trial them – they often taste very different to how they’re described. I’m excited to share my findings and help you discover tomatoes with truly tantalising flavours this summer!
Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) is one of our beautiful British wildflowers that grows in chalk grassland, over sand dunes, across shingle, and atop cliffs, in South East England. These stunning plants should be cherished, as from late spring and early summertime, Kidney Vetch bloom continuously for around three months. Their flowers are a magnet for bees, and Kidney Vetch thrives in containers on a sunny patio or balcony.
Certainty is important in life; the people and plants that stand by us come what may, are to be appreciated and valued. Some houseplants have very specific growing requirements and are unable to survive long-term without humidity levels that are unobtainable to most, precise lighting, and consistently warm temperatures which are costly to maintain – especially now energy costs are prohibitively expensive.
Fittonias are stunning indoor plants with exquisite, detailed veining on their leaves that resembles a network of nerves, hence the plants’ common name, the Nerve Plant. These short, bushy houseplants don’t take up much space, yet Fittonias’ colourful, intricate foliage can brighten up our homes, adding pops of colour and bringing seasonal cheer to even the smallest of spaces!
Fittonias are available in a wide range of colours, from vibrant reds or glowing oranges, punchy cerise or zingy lime, to blush pink, and softer pastel tones.
