Features

Features

All the latest features from Gardens Illustrated magazine

Gardening events and shows in 2025

All the big names in one place. Here's our guide to the gardening calendar's biggest and best gardening events for the year ahead
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Best Mother's Day garden gifts to make her feel special

Still looking for the perfect Mother's Day garden gift? We've compiled a list of excellent gardening presents for Mother's Day 2025.
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The compost guide: best compost for potting and more

Compost - so many different types for different jobs in the garden. We break things down into a handy list and round up some of the best composts for seeds, potting, houseplants and the garden.
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Bloom & Wild flower deliveries: our honest review

Here's what we thought of Bloom & Wild's flower delivery service and subscription model when we put it to the test.
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This secret garden of London’s Brutalist icon is open to all 24 hours, and the perfect example of a successful public planting scheme

As a new phase of planting begins, Professor Nigel Dunnett looks at how the iconic public gardens he created at The Barbican Estate in London have evolved over the past decade
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It’s porn for plant lovers – and Nigel Slater is open to temptation from the plant catalogues

Fuelled by the temptations of plant catalogues, Nigel Slater fills winter days imagining his dream garden
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Dr James Compton: ‘I am fundamentally lazy and put off gardening chores’

Our resident botanist Dr James Compton talks about his new collaboration with Hans Walter Lack and Martin Callmander
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The antidote to ultra-processed food: why you should be growing your own this year

More people than ever want to grow their own, for a variety of reasons, says Dr Richard Claxton, and this one thing can improve our health and help the planet
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Isn’t it ironic: the scented sweet-pea breeder who lost his sense of smell (and has to employ a ‘sniffer’)

The sweet pea and dahlia breeder on his early love of breeding, the excitement of seeing dahlias in the wild and finding the missing slice of the sweet pea colour spectrum
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We just found out plants can 'smell', 'hear' and communicate - does this mean we'll have to stop gardening?

Some recent research suggests plants may be able to learn, sense and communicate. So, asks Darryl Moore, should we now rethink how we treat them?
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There are plants that make wasps drunk – discover 10 facts about wildflowers that will surprise you

Author and botanist Chris Thorogood picks ten wildflowers that have a remarkable relationship with their pollinators and other plants from his new expert book on wildflowers
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Everything you need to know about Alan Titchmarsh's Gardening Club

Discover all about Alan Titchmarsh's Gardening Club, the new season that focuses on gardening on ITV1
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These plants will make your garden look good all year: 30 plants and flowers for year-round colour and interest

These hard-working plants provide several seasons of interest in your garden through flowers, fruit, foliage, bark and even spring shoots
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32 top women garden designers working in the UK today

To mark International Women's Day, we round up some of the top women garden designers working in the UK today
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50 invaluable plants for the garden as chosen by a royal garden designer

Landscape designer Jinny Blom picks the 50 plants she loves the most, from first loves, to flowers great for a pot
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It's not your compost, it's you - I tested peat-free compost and it does work. Here's how to succeed with peat free compost

Our guide to finding the right peat-free compost, using the best online resources and learning from inspiring peat-free show gardens.
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The island bed is back in our gardens, with a chic designer update – here’s how to do it right for beautiful planting this summer

Designer Charlotte Harris reflects on the shift towards organically shaped ‘island’ planting beds, and reveals inside tips on how to get the right effect.
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What to plant in March for beautiful blooms and tasty veg over the summer and beyond

Head gardener Benjamin Pope and grower and writer Aaron Bertelsen offer their suggestions for the best things to plant in pots and beyond this month
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As spring arrives you need to get these tasks done in the garden - the ten key gardening jobs for March

It's spring fever in the garden, as kitchen gardener Aaron Bertelsen and head gardener Benjamin Pope share their gardening jobs for March
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The best folding saws for coppicing and pruning jobs this season

Save space when cutting branches and shrubs with our picks of the best folding saws.
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The world's most endangered plants: ten of the plants likely to be extinct very soon

The experts at Kew Gardens highlight ten of the world's most at risk plants, from a tiny waterlilly to a golden fuchsia
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6 secret tricks of garden designers to make your garden look and feel better

Good gardens usually reference a few tried and tested design tricks – here's how to incorporate some of them into your own space.
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It feels like spring, but it's not here yet - discover when spring *actually* starts

When spring starts is different depending on which calendar you're looking at. Here we answer the question what is the first day of spring in 2025?
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How to make your own plant supports and protection that are easy, cheap and full of charm

Ideas for homemade plant supports using natural materials, to give plants support and protection during the growing season.
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