BBC Gardeners' World

discover more from gardeners’ world magazine

Our award-winning app Keep up to date while you’re on the move with our digital edition, made for iPhone and iPad. Get extra content plus videos from Monty and the team, plus access to our subscriber-only, online Secret Garden. Pay from £4.99 an issue in the App Store. See: bit.ly/GW-digital Cotswolds journey Explore the gardens of the Cotswolds and enjoy the company of local resident Rachel de Thame, and fellow readers, this June. Hear her talk about growing for health as part of the trip – see more on p74. Bag a bargain! Don’t miss out on our exclusive spring offer for readers – 36 free plants, paying just £5.80 postage. Order now for a colour-packed summer! See page 14. Grow for flavour Enjoying homegrown food is one of the joys of life. We share how, in…

welcome

March is a month of countless tiny miracles. Dry seeds bursting into growth, fresh leaves unfurling from the coldest soil, bare branches crackling with tiny flowers – all signs of life emerging daily from the most unpromising beginnings, full of wonder and hope. You can almost feel the infectious energy that’s crackling through our gardens, giving the encouragement we need to get out there and be a part of it. So we’ve crammed this issue with ways to get stuck in, and start your best-ever year in the garden. Whether you’re planting more for pollinators, growing healthy food, or simply gardening to feel good, you’ll find inspiring ways to start. And because we know how full life gets, Alan shares his checklist that even the busiest gardeners can follow; while our…

we love march for its harmonious performance

STAR OF THE MONTH Muscari armeniacum To continue the musical theme from the words above, Muscari also spurs me into song, this time an Italian one. This song (Nel blu, dipinto di blu), written and sung by Domenico Modugno, found fame as the Italian entry in the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest. It goes on to wax lyrical about the blue, blue sky, which is, as you can see, the same glorious colour as the flowers of this exquisite grape hyacinth. The little purple chap peeking out from the foliage is a viola, with deep blue/purple hyacinths at the back. Very easy to grow. Plant as bulbs in autumn, in borders and containers. If happy it will self-seed, and clumps can be divided when dormant in summer. Height x Spread 15cm x 10cm EYE OF…

expert’s choice spring anemones

One of the most delightful features of the spring garden is the low tapestry of early flowers that are at their peak in the shade before tree and shrub cover closes over. Hellebores and primroses, epimediums and pulmonarias, erythroniums, dwarf bulbs and more are all knitted together by the low, steadily spreading growth and upturned flowers of woodland spring anemones. These enchanting relatives of the tall and vigorous autumn essentials, sprout mainly from brittle runners to present neat, ferny foliage topped by upturned flowers in a range of soft and bolder colours. Once most snowdrops have finished their bloomng season, these anemones nudge around other spring perennials and bulbs, and intermingle with them to create an intimate embroidery of colour, to then fade away for summer. By contrast with the sun-loving Mediterranean anemones…

the full

I don’t get out much. I often go for days when I don’t leave the garden, save to walk the dogs. But the other day I did go out to lunch with friends who introduced me to the concept of ‘cathedral thinking’. You may be aware of this, but just in case you haven’t come across it before, the argument for cathedral thinking is that just as medieval cathedrals took hundreds of years to build – involving generations of craftsmen devoting their entire lives to the task, despite having no chance of seeing the finished work – so we should plan and participate in work that benefits future generations and the world at large, rather than ourselves and our own narrow interests and lifespans. The conversation came about as I was…

have your say

Forces of nature I both agree and disagree with Monty’s perspectives on man-made habitats (The Full Monty, February issue). As someone whose profession has led me to experience mental health problems, I commend any company that uses nature in the workplace to promote a better quality of life. However, instead of resorting to extravagant creations such as Amazon’s Spheres in Seattle, companies should perhaps provide small-scale integrations of nature in the workplace, such as rooftop gardens, community allotments or vertical green walls. Becci Deakin, Birmingham I agree with Alan’s view on the importance of reviving our connection with the Earth (Tales from Titchmarsh, February). But before we can do this, more people need to start tending gardens and discover the real life in there. You can’t force people to connect with nature, however, so…