12-Dec-2020

Amateur Gardening

For everyone who loves gardening

Amateur Gardening1 min read
Editor's Note
“Who says the winter garden is dull? To me, it is awash with colour and shape. Even in early December, I’m enjoying the bright gold and leathery russet leaves on a copper beech hedge, the dark burgundy of my sedum heads, the burnt ochre of my acer an
Amateur Gardening2 min read
Winter Houseplant Care
GARDEN plants aren’t the only ones that need different levels of care as the days shorten and the temperature drops. Indoor greenery is also, by and large, slowing down for its winter rest and while you can take your foot off the care pedal a little,
Amateur Gardening5 min readArchitecture
How An Unprecedented Year Unfolded
THE year started on an environmental note with Garden Organic launching the For Peat’s Sake campaign to encourage wider sales of peat-free compost. Spokeswoman Sarah Brown said: “We are asking people to always buy peat-free compost and if their garde
Amateur Gardening1 min read
Bird Watch: The bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)
I WAS looking out of the dining room window the other day and caught sight of something small and reddish ditting about in the hedge at the back of the garden. It was a male bullfinch, a stocky little chap with a brilliant red chest (more orange than
Amateur Gardening2 min read
Pruning Vines And Acers
WE have a young grape vine growing up a sheltered sunny wall and this year it produced its first ‘proper’ crop of grapes. We should have thinned them out more thoroughly, but we still had a respectable harvest of bunches of small fruits that were tas
Amateur Gardening2 min readArchitecture
Bring Cheer To The Street
DURING the hot summer of 1976, I met a Canadian cultivating what he called ‘Friendship Gardens’ on the sidewalk (‘pavement’ to you and me) in front of his house in Toronto. It was not until he started cultivating and planting flowers out front that h
Amateur Gardening2 min read
Prune Fruit Bushes Now
IN only a fortnight, the days will start lengthening so it’s time to get any unfinished pruning done. Now, you can leave a few fruit bushes alone for years and they’ll not suffer much nor lose you much crop by it. Blueberries, for example, are better
Amateur Gardening3 min read
A Place In The Sun
AS we approach the shortest day, 21 December, I’m thinking about the year past while listening to a robin’s piping song. I’ve positioned myself on the south-facing seat and I’m enjoying the winter sunshine. Whenever the weather’s good enough, I wrap
Amateur Gardening5 min read
Focus On…Fruit Supports
IF there’s one horticultural bugbear that drives me crazy, it’s saggy wires – I simply cannot stand them! Supporting raspberries and trained fruits is critical at any time of year, and now is a great time to make sure that everything is as it should
Amateur Gardening5 min readArchitecture
For Great Returns, Grow Repeat Flowerers
FOR many of us, 2021 is looking likely to be a year in which we feel the pinch. So looking for ways to get optimum value for money will be more important than ever. In the garden, this means getting the most from the available growing room – whatever
Amateur Gardening4 min read
Look Ahead To Spring With Chaenomeles
IT’S easy to rely on bulbs to bring spring cheer to a garden, but early-flowering shrubs can add another layer of interest, and one of the best has to be chaenomeles. Members of the rose family, all quince trees produce flowers, however chaenomeles h
Amateur Gardening5 min readBotany
What To Plant For Bark And Stem
FOR me, a great way of limbering up before a stint of leaf raking or compost spreading is to stride about the garden, homing in on specific areas that illustrate the joys of the season. Winter has the effect of stripping bare; however it also brings
Amateur Gardening7 min read
Ask John Negus
John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week Q Every year I plant winter hanging baskets, but every year the flowers seem to fail, even the cyclamen. I line them with paper, water them well and add water-retaining gel so they
Amateur Gardening5 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Cereals, Oats And Grains
This week it’s: FOR me, winter is the season when I have porridge for breakfast. When I started eating it again a few weeks ago, I realised that I didn’t actually know what porridge was. It contains oats, of course, but what exactly are oats? Then, m
Amateur Gardening1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Word Search
WIN £30 No: 548 This word search comprises words associated with cereals, oats and grains. They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate word
Amateur Gardening1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Crossword …just For Fun!
1 Coconut matting and organic basket liners are this – and the subjects of this week’s Miscellany have plenty of it to aid digestion! (5) 3 A breakfast brand with distinct connections to some mountainous regions of Europe! (5) 7 _______, ____ and gra
Amateur Gardening4 min readArchitecture
Improving Garden Soil
IF you want to ‘improve’ your garden soil, you first need to know a bit about it in relation to what kind of plants you’re planning to grow. You may already be aware that your soil will be generally acidic if there are azaleas or rhododendrons growin
Amateur Gardening2 min readArchitecture
Ask Anne!
A popular shape is the ‘pyramid’, where the central leader is retained and pruning used to deliver a Christmas tree shape, often used for pot-grown trees. Q Our young apple tree was weighed down with fruit, which bent the branches and spoiled its sha
Amateur Gardening3 min readArchitecture
Letters to Wendy
Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com MY neighbour and I are both keen gardeners,
Amateur Gardening1 min readLeadership
Amateur Gardening
Editor: Garry Coward-Williams Email: garry.coward-williams@futurenet.com 0330 390 3732 (Mon-Fri 9.00am-6.00pm) Gardening Editor: Ruth Hayes Assistant Editor: Janey Goulding Art Editor: Al Rigger Picture Editor and Letters: Wendy Humphries Features: K
Amateur Gardening2 min readBotany
Grafting For Apples
JUST as the mountaineer Edmund Hillary risked all on the remote slopes of Everest, I braved the perilous overgrown incline of the busy A379 ‘because it was there’. While Hillary wanted to conquer his hill, my aim was to lay claim to something growing
Amateur Gardening3 min read
The Benefits Of Indoor Plants
THE combination of winter weather and potential lockdown is hardly inviting us outdoors, which is where houseplants come into their own. Research suggests that the plants we nurture indoors can do wonders for our mental and physical wellbeing, which

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