But today I’m focusing on the believers in ‘minimal effort for maximum results’.
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Great new products have entered the market – specifically targeting you ‘less is more’ gardeners.
And I’m here to talk you through them.
Garden on a Roll is fantastic for first-timers. It’s a ready-made biodegradeable paper template border, designed to fit the size and type you want – showing exactly where the provided plants need to go.
Plus it comes with fertiliser, gloves and trowel. Starting at £95 and always including at least seven plants, literally follow the instructions and you’re off.
The Fryd Garden Design app is a lazy way to nick everyone else’s ideas! Download it for free to see planting plans from lots of well-known UK gardeners, and then copy them for your own veg plots.
Gardeners include no-dig hero Charles Dowding, urban gardener Alessandro Vitale , Amy Chapman , Tanya Anderson and Becky Searle .
Dobbies have a £14.99 ‘pick n joy’ range of tomato, chilli and aubergine plants windowsill-ready that arrive laden with produce – and the more you pick, the more they return! Genius.
I know it’s plastic, but as long as you’re careful and don’t go overboard – if I’m feeling lazy I turn to Poundland’s packet of 100 different sized green cable ties on sale now.
I find them invaluable for tying back climbers, attaching poles together and various other little jobs around the garden. It saves you all the time of measuring, cutting and re-rolling string or wire.
Urban Farm’s £22.49 Mushroom growing kit sees you simply add spores, sit back, and watch the fungi grow on a windowsill – just snap off when a recipe calls for it.
Pot Gang’s £24.99 monthly subscription service sends you absolutely everything you need to grow fruit, veg and herbs including seasonal seed, pots, compost and instructions you need to grow them start-to-finish. And there’s whatsapp support. No thought needed.
Elho’s Greenville range of plantpots, from £5.89, has integrated reservoirs, reducing the time you need to spend watering.
The Rose Press Garden’s £25 flower subscription box provides you with all the seasonal bulbs, tubers, bare roots and plants – plus Simple digital planting instructions, Grow-a-longs and How to Videos.
For the epitome of Lazy Gardening – Lakeland have a £199 Smart Indoor Garden – where you literally fill it with plugs of herbs provided, pop it near your cooker – and sensational fresh herbs will grow under ultraviolet light for up to a year.
And to really take the load off, Henchman have a new £249 harness for heavy gardening tools and machinery so you don’t have to shoulder the load yourself – the epitome of minimal effort!!
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HEDGE YOUR BETS
IT’S Hedgehog Awareness Week – time to celebrate our prickly pals who roam gardens eating up beetles, caterpillars and other invertebrates that like to feast on your plants.
- Creating a ‘hedgehog highway’ gap at the bottom of your garden fence, allowing for easy passage between neighbouring gardens
- Create a welcoming hedgehog haven with logs and dry leaves, or look out for hedgehog houses in shops.
- Ensure there are plenty of clean, shallow bowls of water available around the garden. Top them up regularly, particularly during hot weather.
- Provide a good supply of quality food like Hedghog bites or dry or wet dog or cat food. . Milk will upset their stomach.
- Ponds must always have an escape route – a ramp or series of semi-submerged ledges will enable an easy exit.
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SPRING INTO SPRING
THE RHS Malvern Spring festival takes place next weekend at the Three Counties Showground in Worcester.
And it’s offering a new ‘taster’ ticket for just £15, providing entry from 2pm on Saturday.
There’s a new ‘Festival of Houseplants’ – a large indoor space dedicated to houseplants with an impressive variety of specimens, from the popular and easy to grow to the unusual and more exotic.
Experts will be on hand to offer advice and guidance on which plants might suit individuals best, and there will be some impressive displays to admire (including giant terrariums providing botanical snapshots of plantscapes from around the world)
There’s also a chance to visit Jamie Langlands feature garden with a hidden dancefloor, and favourites like Alan Titchmarsh, Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Mary Ellen and Si King from the Hairy Bikers.
Also on hand will be the Bearded Plantaholic to talk to you about houseplants, Jason Williams, AKA The Cloud Gardener who will speak on small space container gardening and other social media stars, including Leigh Johnstone, AKA @thebeardygardener.
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STRIP OFF
IT”S World Naked Gardening Day! You can either take part yourself by stripping off in your outside space, or if you’re on social media just enjoy seeing some of your horticultural heroes baring it all for fun.
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THIS WEEK’S TIP
Pesky sycamore seeds are sprouting – make sure you pull them up as the longer they stay in the soil, the harder they are to remove.
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THIS WEEK’S JOB
It feels like Snailmaggedon out there at the moment – go out at night with a head torch on pick off all the slugs and snails running absolutely rampant in your outside space. Then do with them what you will.
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WIN!
FIVE lucky winners can get their hands on a Garden on a Roll 3m X 6cm roll border biodegredeable template of your choice from their selection – worth £160 each!!
To find out more details and to enter visit www.thesun.co.uk/GARDENROLL or fill in this FORM
Or, write to Sun Garden on a Roll competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP.
Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 18/05/24.
Full T&Cs HERE
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SAVE!
Get your lawn edges precise with a pair of Wolf Garten grass shears for £22.99
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Or make cutbacks with Spear and Jackson’s £9.49 version from Amazon.
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LEARN!
Q. I wonder if you could identify this plant. It is a perennial and I’m sure it’s flowers are pink/purple. It is spreading everywhere, not sure if it’s a weed. Jenny Woodfield, via email.
A. You’re not the first person to ask about this plant. It’s obviously the time of year where it really goes wild.
It’s almost certainly Green Alkanet – which is growing everywhere at the moment.
It’s a weed – but so often mistaken for forget-me-not, borage and even comfrey!!
I’ve been seeing it in all my clients’ gardens.
It’s pretty enough to keep if you can contain it – if not, dig it up, getting the whole tap root, otherwise it will return with a vengeance.
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