Gardening

After decades of decline, it’s great to see these dainty, pollinator-friendly wildflowers making such a comeback

Kitchen gardeners can get carried away at this time of year - but there’s no point growing endless lines of turnips no one wants to eat

This happens more than you might think, and the causes can be hard to pin down

There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to managing weeds in your garden but the use of weedkiller is rarely justifiable

It comes back again with a vengeance whenever I dig it out

The gardening trailblazer is a key speaker at this weekend’s Festival of Gardens and Nature in Laois

I lost a lot of young seedlings in my allotment to wireworm damage last year, but I don’t want to use chemicals

Some Irish seaside gardens enjoy a sheltered microclimate, while others must cope with exposure to destructive salty gales

Should I wait until autumn, or divide my garden snowdrops with friends now?

April is a good month to plant all kinds of clematis as container-grown plants in the ground, or in pots

It will need a fine, friable, stone-free, weed-free, moist but free-draining soil in full sun or very light shade if it’s to germinate well

Ultra-compact outdoor spaces require a disciplined approach when it comes to planting

Do these withered, dirty grey-brown patches mean my plants have the dreaded tulip fire disease?

New growth is everywhere in April – here’s what to do in the garden for a glorious summer reward

Gardens offer refuge from habitat loss, pesticides and cars – but strimmers and dogs can be deadly

Cardboard offers a far more planet-friendly alternative to the use of environmentally harmful weedkillers

Maggot-like vine weevils feed voraciously on the roots and crowns of plants, especially those in pots of peat-based compost

David George Haskell has a new book on the flowers that put the rain in rainforests and that challenge the teachings of Darwin

‘Was that an earthquake?’ In Ireland, buildings have the decency to stay put

I’ve planted a lot of snake’s head fritillaries around our family home, but they are not thriving

The process couldn’t be more straightforward, but timing is crucial and it does require a bit of muscle

As magnolias dislike being pruned, the risk is one of cutting out branches on which flower buds have been slowly developing since the previous spring

Avoid these common pitfalls when sowing seeds and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is

Digging when soil still very wet or waterlogged risks causing compaction and reduced fertility

From sowing tomato seed to putting top-dressing on containers and planting potatoes, these tasks will pay off

Explore ways to freshen up any hard landscaping, from scrubbing down paving to giving tired garden furniture a makeover

Generations Y and Z more likely to be enthralled by Stargazer’s zingy hues and almost surreal perfection

With some careful thought and a clear plan, even the simplest garden can be transformed

Lavender plants come on for a gentle annual trim immediately after flowering to keep them in shape

For award-winning garden designer Adam Hunt, the garden should be ‘a living dialogue between the natural and the cultivated world’

Is it worth investing in an electric propagator?

Waterlogged soil typically needs several weeks of predominantly dry weather to start to recover its equilibrium

There is good news for organically minded gardeners

It took Jimi Blake at Hunting Brook Gardens in Wicklow time to come around to the humble snowdrop, but he eventually saw the light

Certain breeds are great at keeping down populations of slugs and snails, but they do need to be kept out of vulnerable areas

Plants are so resilient to injury - cut their stems and branches back and they will usually regrow, just not in the very same way

It’s important to recognise the fine line between the gardening jobs that can and can’t be safely carried out at this time of year

The multi-award-winning podcast commissioner with the BBC on never dwelling in anger, the death of his father in 2006, and his ‘condensed’ Covid wedding

It’s not just the delicately balanced cycle of the seasons that’s being disrupted, but also our understanding of that cycle

Many roses have been slow to settle into their normal cycle of winter dormancy in milder parts of the country