The 3 Growbags - Three sisters share their gardening highs and lows at home and abroad

Is it time for some garden re-thinks?

26 September 2020September 26, 2020the3growbags4 Comments

Now you might think that since you have been slogging night and day in your garden for months and months this year you can now put your feet up. Oh no, no, no! You’ll be thrilled to hear that September is an EXCELLENT time to renovate your garden. Laura can tell you why, later. You know in your heart that one or two things weren’t totally perfect out there this year – plants or features in the wrong place, maybe, shrubs in need of an overhaul (or the bin), more space needed for all the entertaining we’re going to...

Rudbeckia triloba AGM – brown-eyed Susan

25 September 2020September 25, 2020the3growbags2 Comments

‘Nothing flimsy about them’ – so wrote Christopher Lloyd about rudbeckias. Of course, he hit the nail right on the head, and it reminded me that it is this very dense quality that I often find a little overpowering in the genus. So, a couple of years ago I was delighted to be introduced to R triloba with its open habit and well-spaced wiry stems; in this respect it’s rather different from other rudbeckias. It is a short-lived hardy perennial, some even call it a biennial, however it’s well worth growing because it flowers so generously and for such a long period. It may start flowering in August and will then continue on through September and October: it will battle on to the very...

Thinking ahead – Grow-how tips for September

18 September 2020September 18, 2020the3growbagsLeave a comment

For most of this year, thinking about horticulture has been a blessed relief from the miserable news headlines, and this September is as crowded with grim stories as ever, so let’s turn with a sense of release and solace to some tasks like pruning shrubs, sowing hardy annual seeds, and planting bulbs amongst other things…………………. Encouraging the youngsters If you’ve planted some new shrubs in the last 3 years, early autumn is a good time to have a long look at them and do a bit of pruning here and there. This is called ‘formative’ pruning and the idea...

So what IS making us smile this autumn?

12 September 2020September 12, 2020the3growbags2 Comments

Oh boy, if ever we needed our plants and gardens to keep on and on putting a smile on our faces, it is NOW. A long, slow beautiful autumn right into the back end of October at least, please. But what plants will help us rage against the dying of the light? (Don’t worry if you don’t get the literary allusion there, Laura – we know you’re a scientist and are much more at home with the latest paper on Phytopathology from the Royal Society……………..) Today we Growbags want to give a shout-out to some plants or foliage that...