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

Mint, cloches and lawn-edges – Grow-How tips for late June

26 June 2020June 27, 2020the3growbags4 Comments

We’re past the longest day and the nights are drawing in………………., but not before we have a glorious summer to follow the lovely weather of spring, we hope! Jobs and tips to get on with this week include drying off the tulip bulbs, utilising some household things in the garden and sowing some poppies, so let’s get started……. Household items in the garden No-one, I don’t suppose, wants a garden full of household paraphernalia cluttering up their flowery piece of heaven, but there are a few little dodges than can look okay, work well and can save you some...

Dressing salad, cucumber soup and blackbirds

26 June 2020June 26, 2020the3growbagsLeave a comment

Hurrah! we can invite friends and family around to the garden to have a barbecue and if you’ve been attentively caring your veg plot all over lockdown, or, as Elaine has been doing, growing salad crops in pots on the terrace, now is your chance to really show off. One of the joys of growing your own is that your side salad can be picked straight from the garden, rinsed, trimmed and served in under half an hour, making you the freshest, crunchiest salad on the block. A quick forage in your plot can yield plenty of ingredients (see...

10 different ways to thank our garden wildlife

20 June 2020June 24, 2020the3growbags2 Comments

Has there ever been a time when we have been more grateful for our gardens’ wildlife? It’s been one of the silver linings of lockdown, up there with Joe Wicks and ‘Milk and More’ home deliveries (that would be Wines Direct for Caroline). So let’s say thank you to all our birds, animals and insects by providing a little more of what they like. Here are our tips on some simple things you can do to make your garden that little bit wilder. You’ll probably get some fluffy new ‘bee-friendly’ cosmos from Elaine and instructions on how to make...

Salvia verticillata ‘Hannay’s Blue’

19 June 2020June 19, 2020the3growbagsLeave a comment

There was a time when the only sage I grew in my garden was the culinary herb, Salvia officinalis; but today I ask myself, where would we be without the rest of them? It is a huge genus and they are very varied in colour and habit, many are hardy and very long flowering, others less hardy but all are huge favourites in our gardens today. The salvia that I’ve chosen this week is very similar to the better known ‘Purple Rain’ but its colouring is closer to blue and the whole plant is rather more subtle. It forms a soft hummock of felty, heart-shaped leaves which provide a welcome and calming contrast...