Craft How-to: Hanging Herb Garden

Many herbs, like rosemary, thyme and chives, love the heat of the sun, so a south-facing brick wall is the perfect place to grow a hanging garden of your favorite flavors. Keep them watered, as these little pots will dry out quickly at the height of the summer growing season.


1. Punch eight holes in the bottom of each little pot using an awl, a hammer and nail or a drill. Herbs detest standing in wet soil and need good drainage to thrive.

2. Fill each pot with a handful of potting soil that contains a bit of sand. Herbs produce their best flavor for cooking in soil that is not too rich in organic matter. Read More

Arne Maynard's garden at Allt-y-Bela

Topiary yews beside the rough, winding farm track signal your approach, but only at the very last minute, after you have emerged between the trees, does Arne Maynard spring the surprise of his house.
It is a memorably theatrical vision: a renaissance Welsh tower house boldly painted in the richest shade of rusty ochre I have ever seen, accompanied by clusters of trees pleached, spiralled and otherwise snipped into shape, and all set off by the vibrant green of the surrounding Monmouthshire hills.
It is also a striking contrast to his previous home in the flat Lincolnshire fenland, where Maynard, one of our leading garden designers and a Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist, had spent 10 years making an elaborate five-acre formal garden of orchards, box-edged flower borders, parterres and pavilions. I was astonished to hear, in 2006, that he was selling up and starting again. Read More

How to turn your garden into a hedgehog haven

This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. Hedgehog numbers continue to decline around Britain, and gardeners are being encouraged to help reverse the trend.


“There is so much the gardener can do, and it’s more important than ever,” says Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).

Simple ways to help are to ensure that there is a route in and out of your garden (they need a 5in gap), and that any ponds or pools are easy to enter and exit. Take care to move piles of rubbish before burning them, and check before you stick a fork into a compost heap. Reducing your use of pesticides can also help to create a hedgehog-friendly garden.

More proactively, gardeners can dedicate a corner of their garden to the creatures. This area should be left wild, with piles of leaves and organic debris for shelter. You can also provide a shallow dish of fresh water, meat-based pet food or chopped unsalted peanuts. Read More

Eye Candy: 10 Vegetable Gardens You'll Love to Garden

Vegetable gardens don't have to be anything fancy. A plot of tilled earth in a sunny location - that's about it.


Although such spaces do the job, they don't necessarily offer the most welcoming work environment. In this meal of eye candy, we're offering up 10 vegetable gardens in which we'd actually love to spend time - weeding or not! Read More