Why do we garden? Ever since the pandemic lockdowns we have rightly heard bucketloads about Gardening for Well-being. But what does ‘Well-being’ actually mean to you? Is it something about control over Nature, or the very reverse? We 3Growbags have differing views, as you no doubt expected………. There are a myriad of reasons why we’re […]
Leafing through a few gardening magazines recently I’ve noticed articles about planting up containers now – for autumn! I’ve been wondering why on earth anyone would need or want to do this. I suppose that if you don’t have any existing planted containers, you might like to start now but they will have a very […]
More than a biscuit but not as indulgent as cake, and just perfect with your morning coffee, rock cakes have, over the years, become a quasi-mythical currency with us 3 Growbags. I rarely travel on any visit with or to my sisters without a little Tupperware box with a few in (especially to Caroline’s where the […]
The summer fun has died down, the children are back in school, and there is suddenly plenty to do in the garden again. Lots of tidying of course, but other tasks as well such as sowing a green manure, tidying the climbing roses and assessing your garden tool collection… Tooling up Have you ever watched […]
Did you all take last week’s blog message to heart? The one that said make some notes about what you’ll do differently next year? We 3Growbags have all resolved on at least three changes we’ll make – maybe they’ll spur you into action on your own patch! Good old George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Those who cannot […]
seven son flower tree Just when the garden is starting to feel a little autumnal, and when many trees and shrubs are telling us that they’ve done their thing (and to be honest, some are starting to look a little jaded), this handsome, seldom grown, large shrub will surely pique the curiosity of any gardener. […]
August Bank Holiday has come racing along, hasn’t it! And for many of us gardeners it heralds fading colours, waving seedheads and too much blackspot. But wait a minute…there are autumn beauties just around the corner! And in the meantime, let’s take stock, make a few cuttings, and harvest the apples…… Softwood cuttings The salvias have been […]
Which plants have the most evocative scents of summer? This week we have been sniffing our way around our gardens, and come up with a few suggestions for plants that provide wonderful fragrance in high summer.. At the risk of being called an introverted nerd yet again by you-know-who, gardening is so much more interesting […]
Please read on, and please forget about the common golden rod with shouty, chrome yellow flowers invading every corner of your patch and elbowing out the treasures. This is a totally different ball game – a distinctly different variety and once you’ve got it you’ll be happy to keep it! First off, this one does […]
The changeable weather this summer has certainly kept the grass green and growing! Along with keeping that under control, there are plenty of other gardening tasks to keep us busy such as sowing perennial seeds, harvesting spuds, or propagating succulents… Sowing perennials The main seed-sowing season is well-and-truly over of course, but August and September […]
Late-blooming climbers are a great way to give your garden a real fillip in August! Dozens of perennial flowers are turning into a mass of seed heads, but there are some climbing and rambling plants that will revel in late summer sunshine. We all have our favourites, of course, and we chat about eight of […]
If the extent of your forays into vegetable cakes only stretches to carrot cake, then here is another yummy creation to add to your armoury. This is a moist, tangy cake, wonderful served straight from the fridge on a hot summers day. I’ve tried several different courgette cake recipes over the years and this is […]
castor oil plant: For no good reason I’ve always had a slightly ingrained prejudice against growing the castor oil plant in our own garden – until earlier this year that is. Strolling along the main street of a small village in Somerset, there in the distance I caught sight of a plant table set up […]
We’ve given up expecting a prolonged spell of warm weather this summer, haven’t we? But the dates march on just the same, and August is just around the corner. Help! Still so much to do, so let’s get on with neatening paths, harvesting courgettes and deadheading all the summer bedding, amongst other jobs…. Finding the […]
Gardens need a bit of structure (as do we all, at times!), but many of these features cost a small (or large) fortune. This week we have come up with some ideas for ways to add garden infrastructure without needing to sell off the children or eat bread and gruel for a year……… Yes, you can […]
Everyone loves a blue salvia and I certainly fell for ‘So Cool Pale Blue’. It is one of a series of ‘So Cool’ salvias recently bred in Australia and launched in the UK in 2018. The breeders wanted to produce woody varieties with cool colours on reliable and compact plants. These salvias are also very […]
When is this weather going to cheer up?! I know we all moan like crazy when it gets too hot, but more than two sunny days together would be welcome at the moment. The grey, damp skies may be dismal for us, but there are hundreds of plants revelling in it. And that means there’s plenty of work […]
Today we’re talking about some of our favourite summer shrubs. Everyone knows about the spring beauties – philadelphus, spiraea, azaleas and the like, and of course, they are lovely. But somehow the summer bushes get overlooked amongst all the mad floweriness of perennials, annuals and bedding. Let’s redress that balance now (I warn you, Laura’s are particularly […]
all-heal or cat’s valerian You may already feel confused by its name but this elegant perennial has little to do with the red (or pink or white) valerian that is so commonly seen growing on walls, verges and banks all over the UK – that one is not Valeriana but Centranthus! Having said as much they are […]
Cold pelting rain to stifling, breathless heat within a day – honestly, if our gardens are not confused by now, then I certainly am! Still, that’s what we love about our changeable climate. Isn’t it?! When we are not talking about the weather, there are still gardening jobs to be done – we must cut back hardy […]
Oh, it’s been WET, hasn’t it! What a damp start to the summer! There have already been so many events affected by the rain – even the Trooping of the Colour didn’t get through unscathed. We know that Caroline is quietly thrilled that we Southerners have been getting Highland weather for months now. But some plants have […]
(formerly Chiastophyllum oppositifolium AGM) lamb’s tail Not for the first time am I made a little grumpy by plant name changes. It took a while to get the old one into my head and once embedded there, I used to relish the occasions when friends would spot it in the garden and ask what it was called! […]
Ooooh, it’s still pretty chilly, isn’t it! But at least we’ve all seen a bit more of the sun this month. And there are a lot more flowers everywhere – hurray! No resting on our laurels yet though. There are jobs to do, like sharpening up the evergreens, pruning the fruit trees, and dead-heading the […]
We are chatting about our favourite lilies this week, those glorious additions to the summer garden. But there are actually dozens of flowers with ‘lily’ in their common name, so Elaine and Caroline have had a somewhat looser approach to the topic than pedant Laura… When the topic of lilies was first mooted by the […]
alternate-leaved butterfly bush – Almost exactly five years ago, we took part in our village’s open gardens scheme and I remember well how many visitors stopped to admire our butterfly bush – it really stole the show! I also remember wishing that I had taken many more cuttings as so many people wanted to buy […]
‘Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June’. A.L. Bernstein had it right – June is a huge compensation for losing all the bright freshness of early spring, with its offering of swags of roses, and carpets of hardy geraniums, daisies or poppies. But it’s a very busy month for the gardener too, and […]
As much as the plants, the big news at Chelsea this year was.…water. As if there wasn’t enough falling from the sky earlier, it was tinkling, eddying or tumbling down rusty pipes, from galvanised tanks and over pebbled streams so universally we had to make several ‘wee’ stops within two hours of arriving. It’s clear […]
Who doesn’t love some gorgeous pots of plants around their door or patio through the summer? Well let’s get going! There are a few simple rules regarding container, soil/compost, aspect and maintenance, and then the world is your lobster! Naturally, we don’t all agree about what to put in our pots… First of all, a […]
So you’ve bought your ticket /sucked up to an RHS member to get you a discounted one; you’ve nodded off to Monty & Joe’s blissful nightly coverage, and now it’s the big day – you’re off to Chelsea Flower show – so what’s it like? Getting to Chelsea Flower Show Well first off, getting there […]
Rosa ‘Spanish Beauty’ – Over the years I have tried to wow our house guests by training the roses around the windows which is a very rewarding way of bringing the garden into the house. It has taken a few years but we’ve finally made it! Mme. Grégoire Steachelin is one of the earliest roses to […]
Hurray, hurray, hurray, it’s May!!! Spring has sprung everywhere in the UK now, and we can simply revel in the tender new tree foliage and all the freshness of the season. But while we are celebrating spring, there are jobs to get done, such as planting summer bulbs and beans, keeping an eye on the roses, […]
As we lean into the horticultural excitement of Chelsea Flower Show, one of its leading exhibitors, Kevock Garden Plants, has partnered with The3Growbags, to share their insights into the specific joy of alpine plants. This Scottish nursery has won Chelsea gold eight times in the last 10 years and took the show’s President’s medal last […]
You can spend a fortune on garden supports nowadays but which are really worth the money? And what can you make yourself to do the job just as well? In this blog we’ll be sharing some of our tips. Elaine has an ingenious hack with upturned hanging baskets, Laura will be doing some civil engineering […]
American alum root ‘Harry Hay’ Part of the enjoyment of writing this piece every fortnight is that invariably I get carried away by my subject and end up being side tracked: be it about the origins of the plant itself, the nursery where I first bought it, or sometimes, as in this piece, I start […]
Are you struggling with a cold and wet Spring where you are? You’re not alone. Laura and I visited our younger sister Caroline in the Scottish Highlands this week where there is still snow on the hills. But plants are still responding to the longer daylight hours and there was plenty to do. We put […]