Expert Gardening Advice

Gifts for Gardeners

gardeners gift set

We are constantly receiving emails of gift ideas for gardening lovers. Its not as easy as you think to find the ideal present for someone that loves their garden more than anything in the world. What I would suggest to people is to think outside of the box but not too far. Many garden centres and online stores sell wonderful gift packages for gardeners. Take here for example where you have pre-packaged gifts for gardeners that any gardener would love, cherish or use. I suppose they are the three main things you should always bear in mind. Will this person love cherish or use their gift. Does it relate to gardening and am I paying a reasonable price for it. Gnerally youy will find most gardening products are cheaper online anyway, even with delivery costs and most reputable garden centres will deliver your spade or garden gnome within 2 working days. I always think the trwel, flask and bag sets are a great gift. What gardener would not love something like that? 

A lot of garden Centres now place a lot of emphasis on their gift range and can offer you everything from hat boxes to crystals, figurines and glasswear. You are spoilt for choice really.

BBQ’s Sell Out in Major Stores

bbq

With the extreme hot weather this year, shops have seen BBQ sales rise like never before. Major stores accross the UK and local garden centres have underesimated BBQ sales following several summers of bad weather. One local garden centre owner commented ” Last year we sold 15 BBQ’s all year. This year we have sold 120 and have a back log of orders with a 2 week waiting list. We have never known a scamble like it for BBq’s in our region of the North East of England. The hot summer weather has caught us out”. There are however still some BBQ’s left online if you look and actually some fantastic prices on both gas and charcoal BBQ’s. This years best selling BBQ’s seem to be the larger stockier type of BBQ’s that will be perminently placed for years to come, but after the predicted heatwaves still on the horizon throughout July and August, people are just buying and cheap BBQ they can to make the most of the time outdoors and in their gardens.
We have had a search around and the best range of BBQ’s we can offer our readers are here. Enjoy your Indian Summer. We have waited long enough for it.

Artificial grass lawns are the new cheap craze

artificial grass

There has never been a more important time in the history of the world for environmental concern. The scale of damage to our environment from human-generated activities is at an all time high – so high in fact that it could be too late to rectify some issues. Now more than ever before people are aware of the damage caused by carbon dioxide emissions and pollution; they see the effects of climate change in their everyday lives from unusually high summer temperatures and hosepipe bans to horrendous floods caused by rising sea levels, strong storms and regular, unusually strong winds. All these have hit the UK in particular in recent years and the reality of the challenges we face has been brought home to us all. We have a serious responsibility to seek, find and implement courses of action in an attempt to halt the downward spiral of environmental damage and climate change.

So what can we do to help our environment? Well, the best place to start is at home – look at your garden and think about what you are perhaps already doing to damage the environment.

Ask yourself these 5 questions:

Do you have a lawn?
Do you use fertilizers and pesticides, weed killer etc?
How much watering does it take each year?
How often do you have to cut the grass?
Do you use a petrol-driven lawnmower?

If any one or more of these 5 points applies to you then you are in some way creating a negative effective upon the environment.
This is where using artificial grass can help.
Admittedly, artificial turf is produced in a factory that produces carbon emissions but our company is the only company that purchases carbon credits to offset the damage and, what’s more, the damage caused in producing products for natural grass is much greater.

There are key issues where artificial grass can benefit the environment. The arguments put forward are, at the very least, stimulating, possibly even concerning. Either way we hope to have made out a good case for how artificial grass can be an ally to both our generation and the next’s in the fight against global pollution.

Artificial grass gardens not only look amazing but they are now cost effective and simple to keep. Never again do you need to cut your lawn. Your garden now looks like a country house all year round and imagine never having to break a sweat cutting it or watering it ever again.

For cheap cost effective but stunning artificial grass you need look no further than the Internet at sites such as this which is renowned for it’s award winning grass. For more information and free delivery from a reputable UK site check here.

I chose this site for artificial grasss as they also offer all the simple installation tools and you will have award winning artificial turf in no time.

Summer wedding

I have chosen a garden wedding this summer with the help if poplar tree florist in Durham who have provided a splendid portfolio of wedding flowers to fill the church and marquee with.

Thanks to poplar tree wedding florist I feel I have incorporated my horticultural background into the wedding due to their superb displays.

Poplar tree florist cover weddings in Newcastle Sunderland and Durham but also provide flowers fir funerals and events. You can find out more and see portfolios online here

Keep watering in hot weather

Please do not forget to keep ontop of watering plants and turf in your garden during the growing temperatures this may and even more so in the simmer ahead.

With temperatures hitting 21 degrees in London tomorrow a simple hosepipe can save your garden from dying a sad slow painfully death. Plants need constant water in times of high temperatures and humidity. Water small garden shrubs for at least 30 seconds each and consider a sprinkler attachment for your grass. An hour a day watering your garden will do.

All these hosepipe attachments and hosepipes are available cheaply here Online

Happy summer gardening. Get the garden furniture out as 2010 is expected to be very warm and sunny in the uk.

Grow Your Own

Grow your own

PlantforLife and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) have teamed up with celebrity plantsman, Chris Collins to champion the next phase of ‘grow your own’ gardening by educating people with simple tips on how easy it is to plant and grow fruit trees and berries in containers or a small space in the garden.

Your local Garden Centre should now be featuring heavily on grow your own tools, skills and passing on offers that will entice you into Growing your own vegetables. Grow your own is not a new craze, it is simply that growing your own has become far cheaper in recent years and is now cheaper than buying in any high street supermarket.
Make sure that you have the best tools to grow your own and make gardening easier by talking to your local garden centre and asking for their advice. Poplar Tree Garden Centre offer advice via email, telephone or in person in their store and you can buy many Grow your own items online which will give you everything you need to get gowing and thrive.

Cloggies

Zesty Lime Essential Cloggies are now even softer, with cushioned insole, these injection moulded clogs are great for ‘keeping by the back door’ and slipping on to pop into the garden.

What is the great thing about cloggies? You can wear them indoors or outdoors and treat them as slippers or everyday shoes.cloggies have become a cult craze with shops running outbid cloggies days after they are put on the shelves.

Cloggies offer style, comfort and trend whilst also being so soft and gentle in your feet that you don’t know that you even have cloggiesnkn your feet

It has been said that cloggies protect and support your insole,the heel of the foot and even your back.if you have comfortable spongey shoes in cloggies then your back will be protected from the everyday rigours of being on your feet all day

Cloggies are here to stay,and it’s just unfortunate that they are so hard to find due to demand. We have found a good range online at garden centre

Ashleigh and Burwood fragrances

The Ashleigh & Burwood brand is synonymous with high quality, creative and innovative home fragrance products.

The ashleigh and burwood fragrance lamp sets are the latest craze and must have items of 2010 / 2011. Ashleigh and burwood have a saying that they never compromise quality for price. Ashleigh & Burwood offer a vast range of products including Catalytic Fragrance Lamps, Reed Diffusers, Fragrance Oils, Scented Candles, Incense, Room Sprays, Aromatherapy Products and many more high quality giftware related products.

The Ashleigh & Burwood Fragrance Lamp is the ultimate product to refresh the home! The ashleigh and burwood sets seem to be much cheaper online and can be purchased from places like health stores and Garden Centres such as Poole tree

These fragrance lamps represent quality, luxury and above all style. The stunning ornamental fragrance lamps utilise a century-old catalytic combustion technique that filters airborne odour-causing molecules. In addition the fragrance contained within the fragrance lamp is emitted to provide a gentle fragrance to the room. The fragrance lamp compares favourably to other room fragrance products and is a most efficient diffuser of fragrance, spreading it evenly and quickly around a room.

Please note that Ashleigh & Burwood Premium Fragrance Lamps should only be used with their “Lamp Fragrance”. Use of other fragrance may result in damage to the lamp wick. Gold ribbon in picture not included with product.

Spring is here.Time to start gardening

Spring is probably the busiest season in the garden. Plants are waking up, mulch needs to be removed, winter clean-up has to be done, and all before you can start planting this year’s garden.

If you have large clumps of herbaceous perennials it’s a good time to divide and replant them, as this will increase their vigour and provide spare plants for your garden. Use two forks back to back to split the clumps and water generously after replanting.

Start the growing season off right by filling your gardens with cool season flowers and vegetables. Some of these plants are hardier than we are and can be planted outdoors even before the threat of frost is past. Others may need a bit of coddling to begin with, but cool spring weather is when they shine, so don’t miss out by waiting too long to plant them

You can get a great range if seeds or plants online at places such as here:
garden centre online

Happy spring gardening

Flower Power of March Gardening

There is nothing better than the smell of flowers in your garden. Picture your childhood days and what do you remember most about running around in the garden. The smell. March is the month to create that smell. In our hurried, stressful world, we’re often looking for ways to relax and enjoy the things around us. Your own flower garden is a terrific way to do that. As the saying goes, you can improve life simply by stopping to smell the roses.

And those roses smell even better if you grew them yourself!

You’ve probably noticed that some people just have a knack for growing nice, healthy flowers while the rest of us seem to mostly grow weeds. Often the difference between a lush, wonderful flower garden and a gnarly weed bed are a few simple factors. Do the right things and you’ll find growing beautiful flowers is easier than you imagined.

1. Plant flowers that do well in your area. Temperature, rainfall, and more that determine your local climate will favor some flowers, while making others almost impossible to grow. For example, if you endure the super hot summers of Texas or Arizona, you will have to grow different kinds of flowers than people in cooler New York or Utah.

To some degree, you can check the backs of seed packets to know which plants grow in your area and what time of year to plant. Gardening guides can also help. Your best bet is often to talk to someone who knows plants. Usually you can find these people working in smaller stores, greenhouses, and nurseries. It’s usually not hard to identify who these plant experts are, as just about everybody in town knows about them and repeats their advice.