If you’ve started growing things at home you’ll be aware just how much more you can do with a greenhouse. Maybe you’ve been thinking about getting one for home, or maybe for your allotment?

Two Wests & Elliot is one of the biggest names in greenhouses

You might have seen their lovely catalogue in a gardening magazine and you can also browse their website.

If you’re looking for a small greenhouse then you will find many types here not found elsewhere. Their range of mini lean too greenhouses is excellent.

Palram Polycarbonate Greenhouses are perfect for avoiding that horrid breaking glass sound – if you’ve got children yourself you can be assured they can’t damage themselves or the tough polycarbonate of this greenhouses. Plus it’s made from a sturdy aluminium frame complete with everything you need including frame, gutter and roof vent.

They also sell High quality, attractive, maintenance free, safety glazed Rion Greenhouses which are very pretty with a more curved look to them.

You’ve also got to consider Shading & Ventilation in your greenhouse in the hot summer months. You want to keep your plants as healthy as possible and automatic vents which open windows as the weather warms up are a useful way of doing this.  You can also get automatic louvres to open too – these operate on the same principle as the Bayliss openers – i.e. a stainless steel cylinder containing a mineral wax which expands with heat, causing the vent to open, as the temperature falls the wax contracts & the opener closes.
The louvres also have a release catch to allow manual opening & closing too!

For winter they also have a range of heaters from gas to paraffin and electric.

As well as lots of great accessories and high quality staging for keeping your plants in order!

Their site is packed with information and help about all their greenhouses and greenhouse products

Record breaking peas! They over 16cm long which is enormous!
Giant Mange Tout peas

These are massive, but peas and mange tout are fairly easy to grow.

They’re something that my neighbour has been growing and has had a really good crop from. They’re also very dear in the supermarkets – £1 for a tiny tray of them so well worth the money to buy some seeds and have a go!
There are normal peas which you pod, mange tout which you eat all of and sugar snap peas which are thicker and have more of a snaap to them!
There are many types of peas and all good seed sellrs will have a wide range of seeds available. The seeds are dried peas! So you can keep some of the pods and leave them to grow on the plant until they’re dry – then store and you can grow from these again.

The proliferation of wheely bins now means most homes have 3 or 4 wheely bins to hide in the garden. You can of course leave them out, boldly positioned to announce your keenness on recycling but they are mostly horrid looking and there’s so many of them!

Hiding them in the garden is a good idea as long as they’re still easily accessible for putting rubbish in. The more of a pain it is to put the rubbish out means you’re more likely to make is stack up in the kitchen and that’s a bad idea!

Some people have wooden enclosures to tuck them away in, but not everyone wants a wooden structure, or has a flat enough area available.  If you have they can look very nice as these here do: Wheelie Bin Storage – Tuin
These include a double bin and a single bin hider.

Alternatives include hiding them behind a fence panel, behind a hedge, or keeping them in a shed. You can get stickers for wheelie bins but they have a tendency to start peeling off if you’re not careful and then they look terrible!
A neighbouhood watch hint would be to not leave bins where they can be used to climb onto rooves.

A simple thing that wouldn’t be too expensive would be a simple piece of trellis used to grow plants up and keep the bins behind this. This would make an attractive feature in your garden too. Climbing plants could be picked so that they are scented too, also disguising any smell issues you may have with your bins in hot weather!

Tatton Park is fast approaching on 22nd – 26th July

Be inspired, be creative. Be at RHS Show Tatton Park this summer

Buy Tatton Park RHS Show tickets now – with a discount if you’re a RHS member

Fantastic show at Tatton Park. To inspire and enthral! The Tatton Show is amazing!

It’s a great family day out – and don’t forget – kids go
free!

RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition

displays of The British Florist Association.

Plus two exciting new garden categories for 2009, the RHS Young Designer of
the Year Award and the Visionary Gardens Competition.

Floral Design Studio

Arts & Heritage Pavilion

The British Florist Association Marquee

Floral Marquee, Plant Plaza & new plants

Plus nursery displays in the Plant Plaza near the Deer Park Entrance.

National Plant Societies Marquee

The Summer Fruit and Vegetable Competition

The Wonderful World of Vegetables Competition – Cheshire Schools Growing Competition

RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition

The RHS Young Designer of the Year Award

Visionary Gardens Competition

Back to back gardens – 6mx4m gardening!

It is held at Mereheath Lane, Knutsford, Cheshire

Join the RHS and have access to the preview day and save up to £6 on
a pair of public day tickets.

RHS membership gives you discounted tickets for their wonderful garden shows.

Chealsea Flower Show is one of the best gardening shows in the world and is famous for it’s innovative and beautiful gardens.

It’s an opportinituy to see some amazing gardens that have been designed and built just for the show.
Here’s a brief outline of what gardens were made in 2009. Get membership of the Royal Horticultural Society and get discounted tickets for these garden shows

Perfume Garden – a fantastic garden which has a diverse range of plants that are used in the perfume industry. From clipped western red cedars, Thuja plicata, to the Sedum rosea. The plants are have their place in the world of perfumerie and the central statue is a machine making perfume from a recipe of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century!
Designers: Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins

The Marshalls Living Street – a fascinating expression of the front gardens of four contemporary terraced houses. Showing how different small gardens can be.
Designer: Ian Dexter

Future Nature – dealing with extremes of rain either none or loads. In essence a storm drain garden. Using lots of re-used materials.
Designers: Nigel Dunnett, Adrian Hallam and Chris Arrowsmith

The QVC Garden
Inspired by one stanza from Tennyson’s The Oak:

Live thy Life,

Young and old,

Like yon oak,

Bright in spring,

Living gold”
Designer: Adam Frost

Laurent-Perrier Garden – classical structure of the planting lends an air of grace to this garden.
Designer: Luciano Giubbilei

Foreign and Colonial Investments Garden – ribbon planting weaves one plant’s colour through a flower bed. Using plants that are adaptble to climate change and featuring endangered plants that can not adjust.
Designer: Thomas Hoblyn

The Cancer Research UK Garden – theme is impact and the garden is a structural piece of design using gentle water, walls and plants.
Designer: Robert Myers

The Daily Telegraph Garden – Swedish inspired minialist design featuring strong, elegant and sustainable planting.
Designer: Ulf Nordfjell

The Quilted Velvet Garden – Tony is described as an horticultural artist,creating over sized stepping stones to create the dreamlike state of an arduous journey towards the soft seating area.
Designer: Tony Smith

The Key – homeless themed garden – starting with narrowing, uneven paths, dead ends and dark forbidding planting that like dark, living walls – there is a way through the wall and inside that is a space of comfort and shelter. Symbolic of the journey homeless people have to struggle through.
Designer: Paul Stone

The HESCO Garden – the climate change worry – too much rain is embodied in this wonderful garden – a stone cottage in the shelter of a wooded, rocky landscape, complete with a typically rainy day. Inspired by the 2007 floods in Leeds where properties were flooded out. Using rainwater diversio to water features within the garden preventing the crisis of flooding. Using wonderful yorkshire stone to make the cottage.
Designer: Martin Walker and Leeds City Council

The Canary Islands Spa Garden inpsired by the volcanic landscapes and bizarre, unique flora of the Canary Islands and the designers shared passion! With steaming thermal spring water, black laval rock and towering palm trees, this is a truley impressive garden! And you’ll know James Wong from grow your own drugs!
Designers: James Wong and David Cubero

Echoes of Japan in an English Garden – features rare rhododendrons, and traditional garden features from Japan including the suikinkutsu (Japanese water harp) and the seikaiha (wave pattern), drawn in white sand. A mix of Japan and England in the garden.

Designer: Kay Yamada

You can follow this blog on Technorati.

Technorati Profile

Do you get stuck what to buy a keen gardener for their birthday? An RHS membership is an amazing gift to give someone who loves their garden!

The RHS are running an incentive for each customer to receive a free luxurious
Crabtree & Evelyn hand-care set worth £23 when they buy an Individual
Membership with the RHS. This offer is due to only last a month

Grow your passion for gardens all year round with the RHS Individual Membership!

Enjoy a range of garden delights with RHS membership including: free visits
to superb RHS gardens, the free monthly magazine The Garden worth £51
a year, privileged entry and discounted tickets to world-famous RHS flower shows;
and much more!

For
a limited time claim your free luxurious Crabtree & Evelyn hand-care set
worth £23, when you join the RHS by Direct Debit.

RHS Individual Membership costs £48 – and gives you many benefits.

The RHS membership privileges keep on growing…

For £48 a year you can join a community of people who share your passion
for gardening. And just like your garden, you can enjoy membership privileges
all year round.

§ Unlimited entry to RHS gardens: free entry with a guest to RHS gardens
at Wisley in Surrey, Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, Hyde Hall in Essex and
Rosemoor in Devon. Open all seasons.

§ Monthly magazine The Garden (worth £51 a year) full of handy gardening
hints, practical advice and superb photography, delivered to your doorstep every
month

§ Privileged entry and reduced rate tickets to our world-famous flower
shows: RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the RHS
Show Tatton Park.

§ Free access to more than 140 RHS Recommended Gardens either throughout
their opening season or at selected periods.

§ Gardening advice: invaluable support and answers to all your gardening
questions, free all year round from our Advisory Service. Available by post,
telephone, email, or face-to-face at RHS Garden Wisley.

And what’s more, when you join the RHS you’ll be helping to fund
our work throughout the UK – like our Campaign for School Gardening and
the Britain in Bloom competition.

Terms & Conditions

Individual Membership is £48 and includes a £5 one-off enrolment
fee. Offer valid until June 8th 2009. Please allow 28 days to receive your membership
card and handbook.

Everyone wants a lush green lawn. There’s a probably with many feed and weed products though: although they do indeed kill the weeds, they also encourage the grass to grow like mad as they have a fertiliser included to help the grass grow.

Evergreen mow it less is a product designed to make the grass grow more densely and not taller!

Mow It Less gives a greener lawn in just 3 days, and then gradually produces a thicker, greener lawn over subsequent weeks without the hassle and hard work of extra mowing.

You can apply it anytime between March and September. For the best effect you should apply this monthly. You can apply it straight after mowing, the kids and pets don’t need to be kept off the lawn, and it only needs watering if it’s really dry.Don’t mow for a week after you’ve put it on, or until after it’s rained.

You can apply it by hang – 30g per square meter. You might want to work this out first – whether it’s a small handfull or a large – or you can buy an applicator to distribute it evenly to your lawn.

It contains ferrous sulphate which can cause staining on clothes or paving so you should avoid walking on the lawn until it’s been watered in … you can do this with the hose if you can’t wait though.
There are 4 products in this evergreen mow it less range – 3 sizes of the product and a spreader to apply it evenly.
Evergreen Mow It Less 220SQM

Evergreen Mow It Less Lawn Food 400SQM

Evergreen Mow It Less Lawn Food Carton100SQM

Evergreen Mow It Less Spreader 100SQM