Amateur Gardening

Spring is in the air

Julia introduces the fortnightl­y garden tasks and projects underway

- With Julia Boulton, Beth Chatto’s granddaugh­ter and chief custodian of the world famous gardens

Now is a great time to be preparing for the long bank holiday weekend at the end of the month; the perfect opportunit­y to spend quality time in the garden planting, prudently investing in bountiful returns.

The garden and propagatio­n teams are now at full speed preparing for the year ahead, full of the joys of spring –bright eyed and bushy tailed. I’m cherishing this moment as, by May, we will be more wildeyed and frazzled no doubt!

Wildlife expert, Dr Chris Gibson, has been helping with our website plant descriptio­ns. Beth was wonderful at describing plants and I never fail to be delighted when a plants-person says they use our website as a reference. So, we thought as well as having Beth’s lovely words, we could add informatio­n about the wider benefit that each plant brings to the world around us and other creatures that inhabit it. It’s a mammoth task but Chris has been diligently tapping away and you will see that this wildlife informatio­n is making its way onto the site. We hope this will help you make even more informed decisions about the plants you choose to add to your garden.

Of course, we’d love you to buy your plants from us and have included a special offer for AG readers in this issue. But most of all feel free to use our website as an informatio­n tool and look to see if you can buy your plants locally to you. It will make a huge difference to British nurseries who propagate their own plants if you buy directly from them rather than the giant supermarke­ts and garden centres.

Anyway, lecture over!

 ?? ??
 ?? ??
 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom