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MAKING BEAUTIFUL GARDENS
Spring
Plan the perfect
border for
Zingy greens, tulips, woodland
flowers & the freshest foliage
Plant a
chocolate feast
Dramatic plants with
delicious names
222
PLANTS FOR
SEASONAL
WOW
Wonderful
wallflowers
Meet the real belles of the ball
DISCOVER…
✿ EASIER GARDENING
Low-maintenance design ideas
BEAUTIFUL GARDENS
✿ Exuberant tulips bring smart town plot to life
✿ Walled garden teams spring flowers with evergreens
✿ Circular design creates two stylish gardens in one
✿ CROPS TO SOW NOW
Sweetcorn & summer squash
We love
birdsong
✿ THE DAWN CHORUS
Nature’s early morning callers
APRIL ISSUE 28 FEBRUARY - 27 MARCH

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38
white
magic
14
PLAN SPRING
BORDERS
94
buyers’
guide
Cover: GAP photos/Anna omiotek-tott
On the cover
Wallflowers with
tulip ‘Ballade’ p28
14 Plan the perfect border for spring
24 Plant a chocolate feast
28 Wonderful wallflowers
36 Gardeners’ Garden 2018
44 Walled garden evergreens...
50 Circular design... two in one
56 Exuberant tulips... town plot
67 The dawn chorus
73 Crops to sow now
90 Easier gardening
Contents
Celebrate
6
8
14
cover
STORY
24
cover
STORY
Celebrate April flowers It’s all
bulbs, bulbs, bulbs in this pretty
kitchen garden at Hergest Croft
in Herefordshire
Be inspired by… citrus greens,
cheep thrills, what’s in flower now,
perfect primulas, tulip ID quiz and
diary dates for April
Plan the perfect spring border
Get a head start on April by filling
borders with zingy-green
perennials, tulips, woodland
flowers and fresh new foliage
Plant a chocolate feast
Celebrate Easter with a tongue-incheek
chocolate-themed border.
Here’s our top ten
28
cover
STORY
Easy gardening
31
36
cover
STORY
38
Meet nature’s little extroverts
Partnered with tulips and forgetme-nots,
colourful wallflowers can
be the belles of the spring ball
What to do this month Get
hanging baskets off to an early
start, overhaul your pond and prick
out seedlings. Plus it’s an ideal time
to take softwood cuttings
The Gardeners’ Garden 2018 Win
£2,250 worth of Cobra gardening
kit in our competition
Conjure up a little white magic
Plant a parade of bells, stars,
hearts and trumpets with this
pretty planting scheme for spring
4 Garden Answers

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Walled
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67
dawn
chorus
36
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73
GOURMET
SWEETCORN
rs’
e
24
CHOCOLATE
PLANTS
Beautiful gardens
44
cover
STORY
50
cover
STORY
56
cover
STORY
62
WILDlife
67
cover
STORY
“My walled garden feels so
welcoming” This Hertfordshire
garden teams bright spring
flowers with structural evergreens
“It’s two gardens in one design”
In this front garden in Suffolk a
circular design creates two stylish
gardens in one
“Spring gives everything a new
lease of life” Exuberant tulips
create a dazzling display
Garden to visit With 40,000 tulips
bursting into bloom, this East
Sussex garden has a festival feel
Wake up to the dawn chorus
Enjoy the sound of birds
serenading at day break. Here’s
a guide to the voices to listen for
Gourmet grower
73
cover
STORY
ask the experts
79
88
90
cover
STORY
GARDEN BUYS
42
Grow the sweetest corn cobs
This lofty crop offers a delicious
burst of flavour at mealtimes
Ask Garden Answers All your
gardening questions answered
Border rescue Flesh out early
spring borders with shrubs and
foliage plants. Here’s how to do it
Design Solutions It’s easy to create
a low-maintenance plot – just choose
the right plants and furnishings
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gift for a green-fingered mum
94
98
106
108
110
your garden life
100
103
114
Buyers’ Guide to sowing kits
Make light work of spring plant
propagation by choosing the right
equipment. Here’s what to look for
Get the luxury look for less
Lightweight, affordable planters
Native woodland collections
Snowdrops, aconites and bluebells
from £15 with free p&p
Must-have perennials 16 value plug
plants for £9.99 including postage
Grow flavoursome chuckleberries
1 bareroot plant for £9.99 + postage
Over to you Readers share their
views, ideas and photos
Puzzles and prizes Enter our
crossword and wordsearch
Garden view Helen Billiald shares
her passion for pottering
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 5

Design Solutions
It’s easy to create a low-maintenance plot – just choose the
right plants, fittings and furnishings, says Dawn Isaac
Q
How
can I make my garden
easier to care for?
FOR MANY of us, a low-maintenance
garden is a must: as we get older, physical
limitations make onerous garden tasks
impossible. For others, work and family
obligations leave little time for weeding
borders or tending vegetables. Those of
us with distant holiday homes or rental
properties are too far away to do the work.
Designing a low-maintenance plot is
as much about what to leave out as what
to include. Well-manicured lawns,
vegetable gardens, needy perennials
and bedding plants, ornamental ponds,
greenhouses and fast-growing hedges
are all high-maintenance no-nos.
The worry is that a low-maintenance
garden can feel like a supermarket car
park – all hard surfaces and uninspiring
shrubs – but with well-chosen plants
and materials plus a few labour-saving
gadgets, you can create a gorgeous
garden – and have time to sit and enjoy it!
Choose an easy shed
In dark grey plastic and
surrounded by plants, this shed
recedes from view but is an
easy-to-maintain feature and
offers useful space to store
garden tools and equipment.
BEFORE
2
3
4
1
5
Problem areas
1 Large lawn involves lots of mowing – once a week in summer
2 Bare brick walls make the garden look boxy
3 Wooden fences need regular maintenance
4 Minimalist planting means the garden lacks interest
5 Lack of paved areas gives nowhere to place a table and chairs
The design
Design: Dawn Isaac; MAIN illustration: Gill Lockhart
Keep things simple
Paving surrounds the artificial lawn,
creating a ‘journey’ between the
bistro seating area, small shed and
storage bench. The lawn area is
edged with pavers, so if you prefer
real grass you can use the edging
as a mowing strip. Droughtresistant
plants in pots make a
feature on the patio beside lowmaintenance
metal furniture, and
boundaries are part-hidden by
slow-growing trees and shrubs.
90 Garden Answers

problems solved
Plant evergreen trees
Autumn leaf clearing can be
a headache, so choose small
evergreen trees such as
Arbutus unedo (strawberry
tree) to add height and
interest instead.
Make a service path
The existing garden fence
will need occasional
maintenance (painting,
repairs), which is made much
easier by adding a hidden
service path for easy access.
Install lighting
Install garden lighting that can
be flicked on with a switch to
save lighting outdoor torches
or lanterns each time. If only
summer lighting is required,
try good quality solar lighting.
Keep storage
looking neat
This storage bench
in woodgrain-effect
resin is easy to
maintain, offers a
handy place to store
cushions and keep
small garden tools
in easy reach.
Go for metal
furniture
Powder-coated metal
furniture in an unfussy
design is easy to maintain
with a simple wipe down.
It’s available in a wide
range of colours.
Plant easy pots
Drought-resistant sedums
and sempervivums can be
planted in powder-coated
resin pots to create
low-maintenance
containers that don’t
need much watering.
Lay artificial grass
Choose a high-quality
artificial turf that matches
the real thing and you can
say goodbye to your mower.
It might just need a vacuum
now and again to remove
fallen leaves and debris!
Choose shrubs
Shrubs in general take far
less work than other plants.
Choose them carefully and
they’ll create attractive
colours and shapes within
the borders. To help them
grow well, enrich the
planting hole with compost
and ensure it’s deep enough.
Mulch borders
Drastically reduce the work
of watering and weeding
by adding a thick layer of
homemade compost or
well-rotted manure as a
mulch on top of borders
each year. Other options are
bark, gravel or stones, laid
on a geotextile membrane.
Install automatic irrigation
You can avoid dragging out the hose or lugging around
watering cans if you invest in an irrigation system that
can be pre-set to water borders and containers.
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 91

GARDEN
TO VISIT
COLOUR MATCH
Tulips such as ‘Purple
Flag’, ‘Rem’s Favourite’,
‘Spring Green’ and
‘White Triumphator’ fill
borders with colourcoordinated
displays
in April
62 Garden Answers

Beautiful gardens
above Rescued in 1981 from decades of neglect, the redeveloped gardens at
Pashley Manor include rose ‘Gloire de Dijon’ growing on its timber-framed facade
garden to visit
Pashley Manor
With 40,000 tulips
bursting into bloom,
this East Sussex garden has a festival feel in
late April. Louise Curley reports
After the delicate beauty of early
spring, April is transformed
into a riot of colour thanks to
the arrival of tulips. For more
than 20 years, Pashley Manor in East
Sussex has celebrated these flamboyant
and exotic blooms, native to Turkey and
central Asia, with a festival in late April.
And with around 40,000 bulbs planted
last December, this year’s festival is set
to be the biggest and best so far.
Pashley Manor is a Grade I-listed Tudor
and Georgian house surrounded by
romantic English gardens and parkland.
There’s a long history of gardening on the
site going back as far as the 16th century,
and the walled garden dates to the 1720s.
Around the time of the Second World War
“The Great Storm of 1987
turned out to be a blessing
in disguise, opening up
vistas across the parkland”
the gardens fell into decline, borders
became overgrown, the moat and ponds
silted up, brambles and weeds took over and
the greenhouses fell into disuse.
Current owners James and Angela
Sellick came to the rescue in 1981. These
passionate gardeners have spent the past
four decades restoring and redeveloping
the grounds to create 11 acres of beautiful
formal gardens and an outdoor exhibition
space for sculpture.
The layout and initial planting schemes
were designed by a family friend: the late
Anthony du Gard Pasley. A respected
garden and landscape designer, Pasley
introduced garden rooms within the old
walled garden and created areas beyond it
that are now planted with herbaceous
plants and shrubs set among trees.
The Great Storm of 1987 battered the
gardens and more than 1,000 trees were
lost, but this turned out to be a blessing in
disguise, removing some densely planted
conifers and opening up vistas from the
house and garden across the parkland. ➤
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 63

Grow and eat
Gourmet
grower
Sweetcorn
Sweetest
Grow the
corn cobs
Ripened by the sun, this lofty
crop offers a delicious burst of
flavour at mealtimes. Helen
Billiald explains how
to get the best results
Sweetcorn might not win prizes
for productivity, but it does
bring a scrumptious latesummer
harvest. In August
there’s nothing better than finding fat
ripe cobs for dinner.
Sweetcorn needs a long, warm season to
perform well. You can maximise harvests
by starting off an early-cropping cultivar
such as ‘Lark’ or ‘Swift’, under cover and
planting in a sheltered, sunny spot.
Mice love sweetcorn so sowing
outdoors is a risky venture. To save broken
hearts and get a headstart on the growing
year, start in a greenhouse or on a sunny
windowsill. Allow about four weeks from
sowing to transplanting; mid-April is
ideal for a mid-May planting or delay
until later if your garden is prone to late
frosts. If you sow too early, plants risk
becoming pot bound.
It’s safer to grow only one cultivar at a
time because cross-pollination can alter
taste. Cobs are ripe when they appear
plump, the tassels turn brown and, if you
peel back the outer green leaves and
squeeze some kernels with a fingernail,
they give a milky liquid. Speed from
picking to eating is key because sugar levels
➤
start to fall once the cob is harvested.
Photo: Alamy
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 73

gourmet grower
sow it now
start off
sweetcorn
Cultivars to try
‘Mirai Picnic’ Tender
super-sweet cultivar
with smaller-sized
cobs but with the
benefit of there
being more than
one on each
plant. £2.79
for 30 seeds,
Marshalls 0844
557 6700; www.
marshalls-seeds.co.uk
‘Lark’
Bred for tenderness
and sweetness.
Copes better with
cooler growing
conditions than
some and has
generous-sized
cobs. £2.19 for 35
seeds, DT Brown
0333 003 0869;
www.dtbrownseeds.
co.uk
Sow and transplant
‘Swift’
Very early cropping
tender cultivar
that’s super
sweet. Plants are
smaller in stature
so less prone to
damage in more
exposed locations.
£2.49 for 35 seeds,
Suttons 0844 326
2200; www.suttons.
co.uk
1
Sow indoors
Sow into deep modules or pots
(root trainers work well), one seed
per module, 2cm (¾in) deep. Keep at
about 15-20C (59-68F) to germinate,
and grow on in a frost-free greenhouse
before acclimatising them slowly
to outdoor conditions.
2
Improve the site
Choose a sunny sheltered site
(strong winds can topple tall
plants) and ground that has been
improved with well-rotted organic
matter. Water in well and continue to
water during dry spells of weather,
especially once flowering starts.
3Transplant them
Plant them 45cm (18in) apart in
blocks rather than a single line.
Sweetcorn is wind pollinated and to
increase the chances of pollen reaching
its target you need enough plants to
make a generous block – at least 4x4
plants or, preferably, 5x5 or more.
74 Garden Answers

SWEET SURPRISES
Double pink Prunus
triloba makes a pretty
focal point in this
border, alongside
the darker pink crab
apple ‘Rudolph’.
Beneath them are
forget-me-nots,
erysimum ‘Poem
Lavender’, Viola
cornuta, tulip
‘Ballade’, euphorbia,
pink bellis daisies,
ivy and fluffy tiarella
14 Garden Answers

❤
Celebrate
Honesty (Lunaria
annua) makes a
delicate partner for
tulips ‘Burgundy’, pink
and white ‘Shirley’,
‘Blue Diamond’ and
white ‘Spring Green’
Spring
PLAN THe
border
perfect
Get a head start
on April by filling
borders with
zingy-green
perennials, tulips,
woodland flowers
and fresh new
foliage. Val Bourne
has some
recommendations
April is a high-energy month,
but it’s unpredictable as
well. It’s a bit of a roller
coaster and flowers can
be thin on the ground once the early
daffodils, hellebores and crocuses have
faded. With summer-flowering perennials
just about stirring, it’s important to plug
the gaps with some April flowers. If you’re
not sure what to plant, head to garden
centres for inspiration, or read on...
For flowers at eye level, consider the
spring-flowering single-flowered forms
of Clematis alpina and the more-double
C. macropetala. Both flower just as the new
vivid green foliage appears and Award of
Garden Merit (AGM) cultivars include
‘Wesselton’, which is a spidery soft blue,
and bright pink double ‘Constance’. These
spring-flowering climbers hail from cold,
high altitudes, so they’re perfect in a windy
spot with good drainage. You’ll have to
tolerate a tangle of bare stems in winter,
ABOVE
Clematis macropetala
‘Lagoon’
because spring-flowering clematis aren’t
usually pruned back hard, but once the buds
swell and open they make April a glorious
affair. Let them scramble through shrubs,
or climb tall obelisks.
There are lots of charming springflowering
shrubs too. One of the best is
Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, a compact
Fuji cherry small enough to fit into any
garden. Mine flowers its heart out every
year and I love to underplant it with blue
grape hyacinths or muscari.
➤
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 15

What
to do this
month
April
Get hanging
baskets off
to an early
start, overhaul
your pond and prick
out seedlings, says
Louise Curley. Plus it’s
an ideal time to take
softwood cuttings
PHOTO: gap photos/Howard Rice
put in plant
supports
Get stakes and supports in early
before perennials that are prone
to flopping grow too big. This way
you’ll avoid having to wrestle
plants into place or risk them
being damaged by bad weather.
Twiggy ‘pea sticks’ from birch or
hazel prunings make fantastic
plant supports. Push them into the
soil in a circle around the plants
and weave the branches together
to create an up-turned ‘basket’
through which foliage and flower
stems can grow. Hold in place with
twine if necessary.
All manner of ready-made plant
supports are available – from link
stakes to circular grids and
trumpet-shaped structures in
green plastic-coated wire, which
blend in with foliage as it fills out.
Painted or rusty metal options
look attractive and can offer a
handsome focal point once plants
have died back. Use sturdy
bamboo canes or hazel beanpoles
with soft twine to secure tall stems
of delphiniums and sunflowers. ➤
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 31

What to do this month...
BRIMMING OVER
Get ahead with hanging
baskets... this display
shows pink petunias and
blue lobelia
Plant up a hanging basket
Start them off early under
cover and they’ll burst into
bloom by late spring
Late frosts mean it’s still too early to put
summer-flowering baskets outside,
but it’s a good idea to plant them up now so
the plants can fill out over the coming
weeks. By the time the risk of frost has
finally passed (around late May), the
plants should be just about to flower.
Online and mail order nurseries will
have a good selection of plug plants ready
for delivery and garden centres will be
starting to fill their shelves with longflowering
annuals and tender perennials.
✿ How to plant a basket: Use a plastic
liner or section of an old compost bag
to reduce moisture loss and add some
drainage holes if the liner doesn’t already
have some. Pop the basket on top of a
bucket, otherwise the curved base will
wobble around. Fill with a multipurpose
compost mixed with perlite and
a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets.
Plant up and water thoroughly. Keep
somewhere bright, warm and protected
from frost for the next couple of weeks
before gradually hardening off.
Calibrachoa Bushy, trailing
tender perennial with small
petunia-like flowers.
H10cm (4in) S30cm (12in)
Tiarella Fragrant, frothy
blooms and attractive
foliage for shady spots.
H15cm (6in) S45cm (18in)
Felicia amelloides Blue,
daisy-like flowers cover
mounds of dark foliage.
H and S50cm (20in)
Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’
Hot orange-coloured
blooms and purplish-green
leaves. H and S30cm (12in)
Pelargonium Long-lasting
weather-resistant blooms
in a great range of colours.
H and S10-50cm (4-20in)
Glandularia (verbena)
Pretty, long-lasting flower
clusters from tight buds.
H and S10-25cm (4-10in)
32 Garden Answers

Chocolate
PLANT A
Top
10
FEAST
Celebrate Easter with a tonguein-cheek
chocolate-themed
border. Louise Midgley nominates
her top 10 plants to use
Few can resist the lure of chocolate. It’s a heavenly
edible that’s a feast for all the senses, with its
distinctive aroma, velvety texture and addictive
flavour. This spring, indulge your sweet tooth
by creating a whole border full of plants infused with the
sweet scent of cocoa or bestowed with deep, richly coloured
foliage and flowers. After all, a garden would be
extraordinarily bland if all the foliage was the same shade
of green. It’s far better to plant an appealing mix of dark and
light foliage and flower colours to create some definition and
contrast between plants. A spectrum of mahogany, burgundy
and dark chocolate tones provides a wonderful foil against
which paler lime or pink-coloured flowers can radiate.
Here we’ve provided a delicious assortment of rich, chocolatey
plants, some with perfumes reminiscent of chocolate. Position them close
to your favourite seating area to bask in their delicious scent and beauty.
PHOTOS: GAP; ALAMY; shutterstock
1
Cosmos atrosanguineus
Chocolate cosmos unites the colour and heady fragrance of
chocolate in one delectable plant. The deep maroon, long-stemmed
flowers unleash a chocolatey vanilla aroma in the heat of the day, especially
when planted in full sun. They prefer moist, well-drained soil and perform
especially well in pots and containers with good compost. The tuberous
plants are only half hardy and should be lifted at the end of the season
and stored in a frost-free environment. H70cm (28in) S45cm (18in)
2
Dahlia
‘Karma Choc’
Breathe in the deliciously
intense chocolate fragrance
of this summer-flowering
dahlia as it floats far and wide
in the breeze. Buds open to
reveal velvety flowers with
deep crimson petals and an
almost ebony centre. Dahlias
need plenty of water and a spot
in full sun to keep producing
new blooms from July until the
first frosts. This decorative
dahlia is ideal for arranging and
makes a long-lasting cut flower.
H90cm (3ft) S45cm (18in)
24 Garden Answers

❤
Celebrate
3
Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’
A striking, deciduous, ornamental shrub that thrives in the
poorest of soils in sun, shade or even a tricky north-facing
spot. Its warm mahogany foliage is greatly enhanced by a profusion
of pretty pink-blushed white flowers in June and July, followed by
attractive reddish-brown seeds. One of the easiest shrubs to grow,
should it outgrow its space, give it a light prune immediately after
flowering. H2m (6½ft) S1.5m (5ft)
Digitalis parviflora
4 ‘Milk Chocolate’
Find space in sun or shade for
this scrumptious perennial
foxglove. It’s delightfully quirky
but unlikely to be sold in your
local garden centre, so seek it
out from specialist nurseries
online or good plant sales. Tiny,
densely packed, bronze trumpetshaped
blooms encircle a rigid
spire that rises above glossy
foliage and lasts from summer
well into autumn. A winner for
pollinators, bees and butterflies
and content in any garden soil.
H60cm (2ft) S30cm (12in)
➤➤
Subscribe at www.greatmagazines.co.uk 25

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