Gardening can often be seen as a complex subject and certainly there is a deal of snobbery with some sections that are happy to see gardening as an 'elite' hobby. Generally speaking, the gardening trade is not helpful to novice gardeners, and for some reason best known to themselves, seem happy to perpetuate gardening as a difficult to learn subject.
Basic Gardening
If only they realised that their turnover and profit line would be greatly enhanced if they thought of the end user a bit more. Anyone starting out on gardening - or even those who have been doing it for some while - would spend more if they knew how to spend it, and that if that money spent turned out to be a satisfactory buy.
The mailbox at Gardenseeker is full of questions every day about basic gardening. The question-asker usually bemused by the lack of care and advice at their local garden centre or shop!
Gardening is quite simple. We guide you and show you. Follow our easy-to-use basic guide, and you should be well on the way to to successful gardening.
Spring Gardening Guide and Ideas - start of our seasonal gardening sections. Perennials - Main Site Area about Herbaceous plants and borders. Often planted, but not always understood. Gardening with perennials is a sure fire way of covering space in the garden, and a good move towards all year flower colour. Hardy perennials can be chosen that will enhance your garden at any time of the year. It needs a bit of imagination. We supply the help and information.
Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets
- Basic information - Window Boxes and baskets are as popular as ever, and more people are turning to these as their standard way of gardening. And why not? A huge range of plants can be used in both hanging baskets, window boxes and other containers.
Window box and hanging basket gardening can be done by almost anyone. It is probably the most versatile and rewarding use of space - other than possibly 'vertical' gardening. Even then, window boxes can be included in a wall garden. Using boxes and containers is a good way to produce flower - and fruit veg - if you are short of garden space.
Vertical Gardens
There seems to be an idea that vertical gardens or vertical gardening are only for those with limited space on the ground. Not so! More or less every house will have available vertical space whether it is a wall, fence, pergola upright or any other pole. If all of these are otherwise occupied, then you can make an additional garden space by making your own upright gardening frame!
There are many things to be considered before setting up, but these items should give you some ideas and point you in the right direction.
There will be individual reasons for deciding upon any form of upright gardening. Don't be put off by the splendour of the commercially available vertical garden units. A couple of pots on a post are fine if that what you decide you want!
Roses
Main site area about how to get the best out of your roses. Roses are still the doyen of the English garden. Helped in no little way by the efforts of the rose growers and hybridizers who bring us many new varieties - often with names that we can associate with - every year. May they continue to do so.
Roses are best grown in open, well ventilated areas, without too much shade. Sunlight in your rose garden for at least three quarters of the day is ideal.
However, if you cannot get the sunlight to your roses, then get your roses to the sunlight. Simple enough as roses can be grown well in patio pots or other suitable containers.
Some of the modern roses - especially the new patio and miniature roses are easy to grow, and will add points of interest if strategically positioned.
Basil
Grow them, smell them, eat them. Gardening with herbs is so rewarding, and many herbs can be grown in odd spaces within the garden. Yes, there are those that thrive in hot sunshine, and also those that do really well in dense shade! Add to that the fact that many are edible, and that many more are coming to the fore in scientifically proven medicine uses, and it is hard to see how you can avoid gardening with herbs.
Herbs have been used for centuries, and will continue to be used - all over the world, for the very simple reason, that they have known medical properties, and that generally, they have bought the human race this far in time. They have a variety of uses - culinary, medical and aromatherapy to name a few. There is a bit of mystique about Herbs. We will simply provide the facts.
Cactus Parodia
House plants are easy - if you choose the right ones. Just bear in mind that many of them started their life in a warmer or even tropical country. Even so, many are suitable for colder, darker climes than their origin suggests. Just don't expect your rubber plant to provide a second income for you! If you have little space outside, then you can do gardening to your hearts delight by being a bit adventurous indoors.
If we wish to grow our house or indoor plants successfully, we have to know a little bit about them. In particular, try to replicate the growing conditions which were their original habitats as much as is possible. Not always easy, for many of the plants that are sold as houseplants - or indoor plants - originate in tropical countries. Sometimes in rain forest environment! Not always possible to provide the optimum growing conditions.
Lawn Care Main
Lawns take up a lot of time compared with most aspects of the garden. In spite of the time and care lavished upon lawns, many fail to live up to expectations. Maybe the expectations are too great to start with. Problem being, that next door and surrounding areas seem to have better lawns!
Throwing money at an established lawn or patch of straw is not always the best way forward - neither the most successful in terms of attaining the quality lawn that you want. It is always a good ide to take a step backward, to see what the problem really is with the lawn. More often than not it will be something to do with your lawn care regime.
Photinia Red Robin
The biggest problem - easily explained. Many, many shrubs are spoilt by pruning wrongly - or just by pruning. Learn how to increase your gardening knowledge with our shrub pruning guides. By far our most viewed area.
The importance of pruning shrubs at the right time of year cannot be overstressed. If you prune some shrubs in the autumn, then you could be cutting off all of the next year's flower buds.
If you prune other shrubs in the spring, then the same goes. You could be cutting off the summer's flower buds. In either case, it means no flowers on your shrub!
Leaf Spot
How to identify and tackle pests and diseases. Before you go running around with the spray gun, make sure that you have identified the problem, and that you then have the right ammunition to attack the problem with. You may also wish to think in terms of prevention being better than cure! It is applicable in gardening as it is in our normal health life.
Plant Problems and Pests described with methods how to kill plant pests, deal with diseases and other plant problems, and more important, how to prevent plant problems. The most important thing is to be able to recognise if you have a plant pest, disease or other malfunction which is the source of the problem. Once you do that, you stand a better chance of dealing with it correctly instead of throwing the wrong chemicals at it!
Propagation
Propagation is the process of producing new plants by various means and methods. Most will be aware of the seed sowing method of plant propagation, but new plants can also be raised by other methods.
All manner of plants can be propagated to produce new stock. Otherwise, there would be no new plants to carry on the cycle of growth! Plants that you see on the garden centres shelves, have all been propagated by some means or other.
Methods of plant propagation as simple as 'dividing' plants are all classed as propagating. The main aim, is to get extra plants by whatever means suits your own gardening methods!
Seed Growing - Raising new plants by seed sowing, is by far the most popular method for propagation of many plants. Seed propagation is a relatively cost-effective way of producing masses of similar plants such as bedding plants for the garden.
How to Garden
Everyone will have their own idea as to what a garden is, or should be. That is what makes gardening a bit of a challenge at times. The right answer for one, is not always the right answer for others. A garden is normally an individual statement about you. It is more or less impossible to find two gardens that are identical. How then do we cover the subject - How to Garden?
The one thing that that is common to the vast majority of gardens is the fact that most have plants such as shrubs, perennials, bedding plants, fruit, vegetables or a lawn. There are exceptions, for some gardens are totally devoid of plants, relying on all manner of other materials to form what can be called a garden.
Importance of Gardening
There are two main reasons why gardening is important: Good for the Natural World Environment and Gardening is good for your health.
Gardening is steeped in history which were probably first documented back some 3,000 years ago with the Handing Gardens of Babylon and throughout the years with the Greeks, Romans and Egyptian’s all having gardens. In the 1400’s Britain, we initially started Gardening for medical reasons, herbs were grown for potions. Modern day, we garden for pleasure, because it looks nice and pretty, but it does have a more importance in our modern day lives.
