Author's articles

Hedge Your Bets

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

It can be a confusing affair deciding what varieties to use when planting hedges in your garden and the myriad of different species and their attributes can daunt the inexperienced gardener – we’ve all heard ...

Don’t Soil Your Chances

By Joshua Ellison · 11 years ago

The importance of soil types in the different areas of your garden cannot be overstated, as the ph level (alkalinity versus acidity), density and moisture retention can all serve as major factors in the success ...

Where The Wild Things Aren’t

By Joshua Ellison · 11 years ago

The other day I watched the jungle book and while I enjoyed myself with all the abandon of the first viewing of my youth, the ending disturbed me unlike I remembered - how quick Mowgli ...

Emeralds and Evergreens

By Joshua Ellison · 11 years ago

Green is the colour on the agenda this week and, with the last frosts of spring soon to be behind us, we can expect a lot more of it in the coming months. The primary ...

Bulbs For Your Summer Borders

By Joshua Ellison · 11 years ago

As is often the way in England, our snow has waited for the false security of nearly spring to… spring upon us! However, not to be caught out, we’ve prepared a list of bulbs that ...

Pretty in Pink

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Continuing our weekly piece on the varying colour schemes of a garden and how best to compliment and consolidate them, this week the colour is pink – a colour that will bring a soft, warm ...

Clipping the Clematis – a guide to proper pruning

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Clematis are one of the most beautiful, versatile and, subsequently, popular additions to the British garden. Due to their ability to grow vertically on walls and trellis, in containers, or horizontally entwining with other plants ...

Backyard Bog Gardens – How to Build your Own

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

The benefits of a water-based garden are numerous –from attracting wildlife, to providing an environment for different types of plants that you might otherwise not be able to accommodate, however, you may wish to build ...

Britain in Bloom 2012

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

With the New Year, the Royal Horticultural Society ushers in a new batch of contestants for the annual ‘Britain in Bloom’ competition, where hopeful communities from all over England compete to be honoured as champions ...

How to Choose a Greenhouse

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Unlike our previous piece about choosing the appropriate compost bin, the decision to invest in a greenhouse is an altogether larger investment and the greenhouse you choose will be dictated largely by the parameters of ...

Orange is Not Only a Fruit

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Fortunately we’ve already seen the first snows of the year and can soon expect the last frost to fall, thus signalling the dawn of spring and all the colourful flowers that will bring, and our ...

What's in a Name?

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Etymology, or the origin of words, is a fascinating subject, particularly where plants are concerned. Oft named after the discoverer’s love interest, or for the characters of fables and fairy tales, or perhaps their origins ...

The Buena Vista Gold Rush – A Cuban Weed Makes Good!

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

In Cuba, word is spreading like a wild fire of a new use for a weed that has blighted the local agricultural industry for decades. With the growth of the sugar industry during the reign ...

The Colour Purple

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Continuing our weekly segment on different plant based colour schemes, we now address red and blues first child – purple. As usual our list includes cultivation dos and don’ts, where best to place these examples ...

Trees For Small Gardens

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Last week we gave you information on proper pruning techniques and its many benefits, however even the most dedicated maintenance cannot make a large tree suitable for a small garden, and this week we address ...

Caring For Your Compost

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

There are fewer habits a gardener can develop that are of greater benefit than composting. Dedication and persistence are rewarded with a cost effective means to fertilize your garden, not to mention a practical use ...

Credit Crunch Hits Our Allotments

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

The Royal Horticultural Society have recently published a public interest story concerning the rising prices and popularity of allotment gardening and you may be shocked to find out how plot space translates into wallet space. ...

Yellow Fellows

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Continuing our colour coding of the garden, this week, if yellow is your thing, we bring you a host of butter-toned cultivars. Yellow is considered, in psychological circles, to effects one’s self esteem, specifically to ...

Lopping the Limbs

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Everybody loves fruit - it’s nature’s ice cream with more than forty flavours, it’s the backbone of our vitamin intake, not to mention a good looking addition to the garden. Those of us who have, ...

True Blue

By Joshua Ellison · 12 years ago

Continuing from our previous piece concerning the introduction of select colour schemes within the garden, we now bring you a variety of cool, blue cultivars to compliment the fiery shades we talked about last week. ...