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1 week ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Alys Hurn |Veronica Peerless
Within the plant world, there are two meanings for the word 'invasive'. One refers to invasive, non-native plants on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981. There are stringent regulations in place for these invasive plants, which, if they take root, can disrupt this balance, with devastating consequences. We have covered some of the worst invasive plant offenders here.
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1 week ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Annie Guilfoyle |Veronica Peerless
In streets across the UK, lawns and flower beds have gradually given way to paving and parked cars, completely transforming the look of neighbourhoods. In 1995, the Government gave pavement crossovers (or kerb drops) 'permitted development' status and many front gardens were subsequently paved over. It's now thought that a quarter of all front gardens are paved.
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3 weeks ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
My rough and ready little greenhouse was made by my partner, Christian, during lockdown. He’s an architect and some of his friends find his homemade structure hilarious, as it’s not exactly a reflection of his seven years spent studying. He doesn't care. “I wasn’t going for perfection - I made it up as I went along. I was going for cheap, cheerful and eclectic.
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1 month ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
Forget digging, hoeing, weeding, feeding, crop rotation and pest control: veg growers are now embracing ways of growing food that is inspired by nature. Not only is this a more sustainable and resilient way of growing, it can also be significantly less work. “I’ve found life is far easier and more enjoyable when working with rather than fighting nature,” says regenerative grower, Joshua Sparkes. “In my experience, nature has an answer for most problems and it is up to us to trust the process.
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1 month ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
Tell us about the new book and why you wrote it In September 2021, the wheels had come off my life. During Covid we’d had to close our garden school, Mrs Frost had been really poorly and was in hospital for 11,12 weeks and I was juggling that with four kids at home. There were times when Monty couldn’t film, so I had to record ‘Hello, welcome to Gardeners’ World’ in the morning, then run off to the hospital at lunchtime. And then our youngest daughter was ill.
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1 month ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Alys Hurn |Veronica Peerless
How much would you pay for a plant you really covet? In recent years, some plants have fetched draw-dropping prices online and at auction and some always sell at very high prices. Often rare with unique or collectable qualities that have taken years or even decades to breed and perfect, these prized plants sell for thousands, sometimes millions, of pounds. The value is often driven up by collectors who can go to extraordinary lengths to own a desired species, and this can fuel black market trading.
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1 month ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
The RHS has said that it is delaying plans to make its flower shows, including the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, peat-free by the end of 2025. It has cited a "legislative black hole" for this change in direction. In August 2022 the Government announced the ban on sales of retail peat at the end of 2024, and in March 2023 it made an announcement on a peat ban for commercial growers at the end of 2026, with some exemptions. However the 2024 ban did not come into force due to a change of Government.
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1 month ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
In David Domoney's new book, Plants with Superpowers: 75 Remarkable Plants for your Garden and Home, David shares an incredible array of plants with extraordinary capabilities. After considerable research into myths, legends, and scientific papers, David illustrates that the natural world has truly gifted plants with superpowers.
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2 months ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
We usually plant spring bulbs for spring colour in our pots and borders - but why not add them to your lawn, too? Many bulbs naturalise very happily in grass, where they will flower for many years to come – making this a sustainable way of planting them. In the past few years, bulb meadows have been embraced by garden designers. Every April the meadow at Villa Pisani Bolognesi Scalabrin, near Padua in Italy, erupts into a rainbow of colour.
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2 months ago | 
gardensillustrated.com | Veronica Peerless
What makes a good garden? Some spaces simply feel comfortable – they flow nicely, have logical places for pause and relaxation and simply feel good to be in. While others, regardless of how much money and effort have been spent on them, don’t feel quite right. Renowned Spanish landscape designer Fernando Caruncho believes you know an authentic garden not when you see it, but when you feel it. “When you enter a real garden, time stops,” he says. “You know immediately that you are in a special place.
