Your ultimate garden inspo from the experts
July 6, 2021 | Gardening Tips | No comments
Wouldn’t it be nice to get first-hand weeding advice from Alan Titchmarsh or Carol Klein showing you how to plant your veggies? Well, now you can…
Ok so, we can’t get you any one to one time, but what we can do is gather their most expert advice in one place to give you some excellent garden inspo. Read on to get Monty Don’s words of wisdom on successful seed growing and the likes of Charlie Dimmock revealing her exclusive veg patch secrets.
Here is all the garden greatness you need to get your outdoor space looking better than ever before. You’re welcome!
Alan Titchmarsh
“Gardening is, apart from having children, the most rewarding thing in life!”
Introducing our gardening guru number one… Alan Titchmarsh! As one of Britain’s best-loved gardeners, writers and television presenters, Alan has always loved to share valuable insight and advice with his audience. Here, we’ve picked out some handy snippets for those first-time gardeners…
“Grow what you like growing.”
In an interview with Grow Your Own magazine, Alan said that beginner gardeners should worry less about what their garden looks like, and focus on growing what they love. “Don’t worry about things being difficult to grow”, says Alan, “or about vegetables not growing huge the first time around. I think a lot of people don’t realise, they wait for broad beans to get big, but when they’re young they are quite tasty.”
“Seeing the progress of your planting will be a great motivator”
He went on to give some advice to keep your gardening game strong! As well as finding a bright sunny spot for your gardening, Alan advises beginning your patch somewhere that you can see it, such as through the window when you’re washing up. He explained that “seeing the progress of your planting will be a great motivator, and you can then expand outwards from the window – a simple thing, but it does work.”
“Use a troth for small gardens to grow herbs and flowers”
And finally, Alan’s advice for budding gardeners with not much outdoor space is to use a troth. During an interview on This Morning, the gardening hero told viewers to use a troth with multi-purpose compost where they can grow herbs such as mint, thyme, sage, parsley and chives in a “sunny spot right by your kitchen window” and get your gardening fix that way!
Monty Don
“I’m just as happy growing cabbages as the rarest plant in the world.”
Who wouldn’t want a bit of first-hand gardening advice from the UK’s leading gardening writer and broadcaster, Monty Don O.B.E! Since 2003, Monty has been the lead presenter of the BBC’s Gardener’s World and has a wealth of experience in gardening. You can find many tips and advice on the Monty Don website, but we’ve handpicked some of the best to get you started!
“It’s a mistake to think that you can just scatter the seeds any old how and they’ll all sort themselves out.”
During an episode of Gardener’s World, Monty shared his “secret to successful seed growing.” Monty claims that simply scattering seeds will only lead to a “survival of the fittest scenario” and many seedlings won’t do very well. He advised growers to use peat-free compost and then modify it by adding sieved leaf mould, a little bit of garden compost and grit to open it out. He then explained to spread the seeds “as far as you can because one of the secrets to successful seed growing is to have the seedlings grow strongly from the very beginning.”
“Be untidy.”
Music to any messy gardeners ears! Monty claims that if you want to welcome wildlife into your garden then it needs “unruliness to thrive!” He claims that long grass and seed pods give important wildlife places to nest, hide, mate, and rest and that gardeners should concentrate on the “overall health of the garden, not micromanaging little things.”
“If you don’t have failure, you don’t know why things are succeeding.”
And our final piece of Monty Don’s expert wisdom is that failure is just part of growing, literally! He reminds all budding gardeners that “gardening begins with soil and plants. Where it takes you, requires a lifetime to discover.”
Charlie Dimmock
“Gardening isn’t really as difficult as it’s cracked up to be. Most of it is just common sense.”
Gardening expert and television presenter, Charlie Dimmock certainly knows her stuff when it comes to gardening! As the host of Garden Resue and previously part of the Ground Force team, Charlie has been creating heavenly green spaces on our screens for over two decades. Here is some of her green-fingered wisdom…
“You don’t have to have a vegetable patch.”
In an interview with FEMAIL, Charlie claimed that budding vegetable and herb growers don’t necessarily need a vegetable patch. The gardening expert explained that you can, in fact, mix your vegetables in with your flowering plants. “I’ve seen flower borders edged with what we call ‘cut and come again’ salad leaves because you only pick the odd leaves off, and they actually make the edge of a border look quite nice.
“Don’t forget you have vertical space!”
For those with only balcony space, Charlie says you can transform it by growing plants vertically. Her tips for this include using a trellis to help your plants grow upwards. She advises growing “runner beans up there along with a clematis because they actually look quite pretty. You can also train rosemary upwards, and of course, there are lots of herbs that do really, really well in containers.”
“Do a little research.”
Before you begin your budding garden, Charlie advises that you should take a step back and research flowers that will do well in your outdoor space. She says, “choose plants that will be happy with the conditions you have, that way you won’t impulse buy at the garden centre and lose plants because they don’t like your conditions.”
Carol Klein
“There are only two things I can make, gardens and tea.”
Carol Klein is a beloved gardening expert, television and newspaper columnist. She stole gardeners hearts with her down-to-earth approach to gardening with her appearances on Gardener’s World. Here we’ve found her top tips on growing veggies in your garden.
“There are loads of vegetables you can grow in pots.”
Carol says that if you have a small garden or no garden at all, you can grow your veggies in pots! She states that gardeners can grow rocket or lettuce varieties which can be treated as ‘cut and come again’ plants, meaning you can regularly pick them and add them to your dinner table. Carol says that to do this, gardeners will have to sow the seeds “a bit thicker than usual”.
She recommends using a container like a deep seed tray or the top of a pot. “Have them grow until they’re just a couple of inches tall and then you cut them. It’s quite satisfying because you get quite a lot out of it.”
“There is no beginning and no end to a garden, it is a set of processes, not a product.”
And our final piece of advice from the expert herself is to relax and take your time with gardening as it is a hobby, not a chore. Carol says that all you need is “experience, a little knowledge, craft, science, art and, wherever you can, a dash of poetry. Not to mention a lot of luck!”
We hope you enjoyed our expert tips from the gardening gurus themselves! Now you’ve got your planting sorted, why not check out these top garden accessories to give your outdoor space a boost!
Tags: Garden Advice, Garden Experts, Garden Tips
