Gardenig in France. Tips & Guides

Le Creuset

From Left: Sara Lee. Neilson Barnard / Staff / Getty Images.

You can add grit and gravel, but at the end of the day, you can’t control the weather, and most of the plants will start rotting if kept in wet soil. Also, a sloppy growing medium or a soil with poor drainage can be a problem for many green specimens, but not for these shrubs that like wet soil!

People often talk about the ‘May gap’, when spring plants begin to fade and the burgeoning summer growth is yet to appear. Though if, like me, you allow a little room for some wildness, May can be one of the most abundant months, with cow parsley, bluebells, hawthorn blossom, foxgloves and columbine alongside cultivated Solomon’s seal and the first hardy geraniums and delphiniums in your borders. For me, the impact of this is breathtaking: soft, green and zinging.

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What makes mauve flowers stand out is their muted purple shade that has hints of blue to it. The word comes from France, which reflects these bloom’s soft and delicate appearance. They match really well with yellow and red blooms in the garden, too.

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We get to see tons of beautiful plants on the GPOD, but almost nothing gets people quite as excited as beautiful displays of roses. So today we’re celebrating some of the most beautiful rose-centric posts we’ve had on the GPOD.

Wondering what to harvest in April? There’s a fair few things to gather this month, from fresh veggies to forced fruits. Here are just a couple of examples to harvest now or very soon!

Spring is in the air. There's no better time to get outside and make sure your lawn is looking its very best.

With so many interior paint colors to choose from, it's easy to overlook a few gems. So that you can expand your radar of amazing hues, take a look at these 15 underrated paint color favorites that designers love and wish their clients would request more often.

You can grow these herbs and spices from cuttings and divisions very easily without waiting too long for the harvest! A sunny windowsill will be more than apt for most of these!

As a busy working parent, Tan France loves to shop online—not just because it's convenient, but because it can be easier to find a good sale, too.

Growing mesclun mix in garden beds and containers is a quick and easy way to enjoy a non-stop crop of gourmet salad greens. Mesclun is a blend of greens that includes lettuce, arugula, kale, and spinach which are picked when still immature. Mesclun greens make delicious and beautiful salads with a variety of colors, textures, and flavors. In this article you’ll learn how to plant, grow, and harvest mesclun mix as well as discover 10 awesome types of mesclun greens. What is mesclun mix? You may have spotted mesclun salads on menus in upscale restaurants or in gourmet salad packs at the grocery

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Le Creuset

Repeat flowering old Rose varieties do what it says in their name however the first 5 in my Top Ten only flower once per year but still inspire.

Ranging from $500 to $5,000 per kilogram, saffron, or the Red Gold as it is commonly referred to, takes a total of about 150,000 flowers to produce just one kilogram! Now you know why it would be a great idea to have its plant at home!

April in the garden is a time of fresh beauty and feverish activity for us gardeners. Seeds are sown regularly, and once germinated, they are pricked out and potted on. Nights are often still cold though, and taking winter protection off your tender plants might be a little premature depending on the year’s weather. The colour is found in the bulbs – daffodils, early bluebells and tulips. The weeds (if you let them grow) will be in full flush with a delicious bounty of wild garlic and fresh nettle leaves.

The oldest anthology of Japanese poetry refers to ‘seven plants showing green through the cold earth as harbingers of spring’.

Fungus is usually a good sign of things going bad. But it can also indicate good things happening to very bad stuff.

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Join David Hurrion on a 12-night cruise from Portugal to France, discovering enchanting gardens along the way, like the forest garden of Fonte Baxa and the gardens of Pays d’Auge.

With all the new trends this year, there are many ways to spruce up your space with style and your own flare. Personally, adding a few new designs and decor pieces to my bedroom is at the top of my list. Whether it’s experimenting with a little more color or putting more prints on my wall, I’m already eyeing what to update in my cozy room.

Dumping manure in public spaces, hurling eggs at government buildings, blocking major roads—the European farmers who have taken to the streets to challenge free trade policies sure know how to raise a ruckus. Beginning with German farmers in January earlier this year, to then include French and Belgian producers, the continent-wide protest movement has expanded into Spain and Italy as of mid-February. Their public disruption has also produced results.

Lavender, the beloved favorite of every household, brings with it a myriad of associations that we should take the time to understand!

Q: Is this a good time of the year to plant lilac? And if so, could you please recommend some varieties that don’t grow too large? JK, Dublin

There’s nothing like a spring container to celebrate the fact that we’ve turned the corner, leaving winter behind us. From bright yellow daffodils that yell ‘Spring!’ to more subtle narcissus that whisper the change of season, or from the lush green of ferns to a sweet-shop display of tulips, there’s a spring container for everyone. And the beauty of a container (a small one at any rate) is that it’s portable so you can move your pot of joy to wherever you’ll see it most – right on your front doorstep, or just outside the kitchen window so you can gaze at it while doing the dishes! Our choices include recommendations from the Gardeners’ World team and familiar faces from across the gardening industry.

Our gardens really spark back into life this month. Bulbs are emerging, perennials are producing fresh growth and deciduous plants are sprouting new leaves. As the days get noticeably longer and the mercury rises, our gardens and their inhabitants are warming up for the season ahead.

Are you dreaming of a relaxing break this spring or summer? Then imagine a weekend spent in a luxurious hotel set in beautiful gardens, with delicious breakfasts, three-course dinners and superb leisure facilities, and add to that a gardener’s delight of live Q&As, talks and demos with the Gardeners’ World team. Sound appealing? Then join us for one of these exclusive events!

The ultimate height of Oxypetalum – my garden, at least-is from a foot and a half to two feet. Although described as of trailing or twining habit, my plants have grown upright, with neat stiff stems that need no support. When broken, they exude the milky juice characteristic of the family, and the long pointed seed pods, filled with silken down, are also typical. The foliage is soft grayish-green and of velvety texture. The flowers are star-shaped, an inch or more across, growing in flat clusters over the top of the plant. They last for several days, even under the hottest sun, and are the only flowers I have ever seen which can be truthfully and accurately described as of the purest turquoise blue. This exquisite color is retained until just before the blossoms fade when they change to a pretty mauve.

Marigolds (Tagetes ) are annuals of great decorative value during the summer and autumn months. They are natives of Mexico and South America and belong to the Daisy family, Compositae. The name is said to have been derived from a mythological deity, Tages. These Marigolds are quite distinct from the Pot Marigold or Calendula.

Hardy, perennial, more or less evergreen, low-growing plants which bear a profusion of bloom in early spring. They are invaluable in the rock garden and wall garden, as edging to flower borders, and as groundwork for taller plants in spring flower beds. Unfortunately, they are apt to be rather short-lived where hot summers prevail. Young plants seem better able to withstand adverse conditions than older ones; hence it is a good plan to raise some new plants each year. They may, in fact, be successfully treated as biennials. They are widely distributed in mountainous regions along the coast of southern Europe and Persia and belong to the Mustard family, Cruciferae. Aubrieta (previously spelled Aubrietia) is named after Claude Aubriet, a French painter of natural history subjects.

Smeg