Our design sourcebook highlights a selection of the most stylish metal garden benches
DESIGN SOURCEBOOK
Here's our choice of the most beautiful metal seating for your garden
PRETTY AS A PICTURE
Garden bench
3-seater, £495 (cushions extra)
Susie Watson
This year make sure your planting gives something to pollinating insects. Here, gardener Julia Wylie, who specialises in naturalistic planting schemes, designs a Tuscan-inspired flower feast for a container.
Tuscan holiday
Lila Das Gupta reviews The Speedy Vegetable Garden by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz and learns that there are plenty of obscure but delicious vegetables she hadn't tried yet.
The Speedy Vegetable Garden
by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz
Timber Press, £14.99
ISBN 978-1604693263
The winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2013 have just been announced. Take a look at the winning picture, view a slideshow and find out more about the exhibition.
The winners have been announced for 2013's International Garden Photographer of the Year. This is the sixth international competition with this year's top prize going to American photographer Dennis Frates.
Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter, selects his favourite plants for the March garden. Here we highlight Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'.
A first-class clump-forming lungwort with glittering long basal leaves 25cm long and covered in a silver wash. The leaf midrib and leaf edges remain a contrasting green. Produces clusters of shallowly lobed funnel-shaped flowers held in purple brown calyxes on elongated stems, which are decorated with small silver spotted stem leaves. The flowers open rosy purple and change colour to violet and violet blue. The whole plant is covered in bristly hairs. Benefits from a haircut after flowering.
Our Design Sourcebook picks out nine interesting mini greenhouses, so that whatever the size of your garden, you still have the option of getting the benefits of growing under glass
If you want the added benfit of growing under glass but don't necessarily have the space for a full-sized greenhouse, here's a selection of nine mini greenhouses to choose from
It may be a little chilly out there but given a sunny day, there's still reason enough to get outside. Here's a few items to help keep you warm once you are out and about.
This wood-fired ‘Dutchtub’ by Welvetree can be used anywhere you have access to water. In a range of colours, £4,500. Accompanying ashtray and chimney, priced £135 and £595 respectively, all available from bigfire, tel 01395 275300
Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter, begins a new series of Nurseryman's Favourites. This month he selects those small, often delicate, plants that bring the February garden to life.
The kitchen garden is back, and with it the complete experience of sowing, growing and eating. Yet vegetables can be so much more than just food; they can improve ecology, encourage birds and bees, offer colour and seeds. You could even take it one step further and bring flowers from the vegetable plot inside.
All vegetables produce flowers, even though most people with a vegetable garden have never seen them. When we look at vegetables as flowering plants, there are roughly two types. Most vegetables produce flowers in order to form an edible product. Peas, beans and pumpkins are examples. So when you cut these flowers, you don’t get the food.
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Your guide to the best courses available in garden design and horticulture
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An extensive guide to the best horticultural specialists.
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Sweeping plains, majestic mountains, stunning vistas and miles of unspoilt coastline...
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Hartley Botanic, in collaboration with the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community
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Set your New Year budget with help from the right bank account
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If you have ever thought that greenhouses are as alike as peas in a pod, then think again.
