Amateur Gardening

THE planting seasons come round fast and as the early bird gets the worm, buy your bedding plants now, while there is still a massive choice in garden centres and online. Planted now, when the soil is warm from summer and dampened by autumn showers,

“Just enjoy your gardening – and to paraphrase the late, great Frank Sinatra, make sure you do it your way! A simple enough sentiment, but one that can get clouded at times by those who suggest we should all garden in accordance with current trends.

AS the leaves start to fall it’s time to think about using them in the garden. You can add them to the compost heap, leave a few on your borders for the worms to break down and add to the goodness of the soil or you could think about making leaf moul

USING bedding, foliage plants and grasses to fill pots and baskets is a fantastic way of adding pops of colour to your patch, especially if space is tight. Use multipurpose compost augmented with a slow-release fertiliser such as Vitax Q4 or Growmore

THIS week I spent a few hours making sure our garden equipment and structures were set for autumn. Weather in autumn and winter can be unpredictable and hard, so it pays to make sure everything is in good order to avoid expensive damage later on. Tre

THE warm, damp soils of autumn are perfect for starting all manner of plants, and hardy annuals fall sweetly into that category. Nigella damascena, or love-in-a-mist, is a traditional favourite with gardeners that originated in North Africa and the M

THE time is here to start thinking about getting your pond ready for winter. It is a little early, still, to think about removing and cleaning the pump if you have one, and bagging up tender plants for overwintering, but there is still plenty to do o

MOST of us with a lot stuff to move around a large garden will likely use a wheelbarrow. The standard heavy-duty, all-metal ‘builder’s barrow’ with single pneumatic tyre is a wonderful piece of engineering. Simple, but efficient, the shape cunningly

LEEKS are often in the ground for 10 months, are an essential part of any winter plot and don’t require any technical growing kit – just soil. It’s no wonder gardeners can’t get enough of this allium! So, how do you guarantee successful harvests? Wit

NO one is keener on wildlife than I am. It’s a huge part of my gardening life and I attract plenty of insects and birds into my plant-packed garden. I have well-tended borders and neat lawns balanced with two mini meadows and some wilder edges. When

Q This year my dahlias looked perfect, with large abundant blooms. I thought they were going to look amazing, but to my dismay all the blooms wilted and rotted away before they opened. Could you tell me what went wrong and how to prevent it from happ

AHOY, me hearties! This week, I’ll be talking bilge! Well, hopefully not. You see, this Tuesday (19 September) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, when landlubber romantics fantasise of a life somewhat more glamorous than the one they’re actuall

No. 132 It’s time for our just-for-fun puzzle – AG’s Garden Wall. This wall comprises 12 bricks in three courses. Each brick has a different word, or phrase on it. The first brick in each course, with BLOCK capitals, is cemented in place and cannot b

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com BEING lured out of retirement to spend

Q My peonies used to bloom quite well, but in the past few years growth has dwindled and flower buds have turned black. Is this peony wilt and, if so, should I get rid of the plants? Nancy Gosling, Aylesham, Kent A Herbaceous peonies are among those

MY mum always told me off for playing with my food, so I wouldn’t like to think what she’d make of my ‘Padron’ peppers. Foodie games are in their DNA, and when you serve up a dish of this wonky green fruit, they come with a dash of mischief mixed in.

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 Editorial Assistant: Lesley Upton Picture Editor and

THERE are more than 7,000 wasp species in the UK, both solitary and social species. Many produce young that eat insects, caterpillars and spiders, keeping numbers at manageable levels. The adults do not live long, so do not need such protein, instead