I’m the gardening presenter for This Morning – and these are my top tips for beginners
GLAM, gorgeous and gaga for gardening – This Morning presenter Daisy Payne burst onto our screens after her horticultural journey was spotted on social media by TV producers.
Now the 27-year-old – known as @fromgardentogarnish on instagram – has got a new book out called ‘Start Growing’ – described as ‘a year of joyful gardening for absolute beginners.’
Containing 40 easy budget friendly projects suitable for complete newbies, she told Sun Gardening: “It’s the book I wish I had when I started gardening.
“I wish that more young people my age or younger would get into it as there’s so many benefits. It’s so important to switch your screen time for some green time.
“When I started I struggled with a lot of the gardening books out there – they assumed knowledge and they assumed I have loads of cash, which I don’t.
“This is for people who have never done gardening before.”
Daisy’s top tips for beginner gardeners.
- Start Small – because if you’ve never done gardening before you can bite off more than you can chew – which can be really demotivating. It’s better to focus on small things and feel you’ve been successful to build up your skills and your confidence
- Learn to love mulching – love it, understand it, do it all the time, it solves so many issues – you just need to find a way that suits your space.
- Understand your soil – the best gardens are those that are harmonious and not trying to fight against the environmental conditions. Understand what you have – and what is going to work practically.
It’s so important to switch your screen time for some green time.
Daisy Payne
- Don’t just go to the garden centre and choose what’s in bloom. Be slow and steady in choosing the right plants. Don’t try and do your garden in a weekend – do it over a longer period as then you can make the right decisions suited to your soil and the space you want to create.
- Don’t worry if stuff doesn’t work or if it dies. See the positives from what you’re learning and getting wrong or if it doesn’t quite go to plan. Have fun, don’t take it too seriously. Sometimes you learn more from your failures than your successes.
Start Growing by Daisy Payne (Ebury Press, £14.99) is out on 6th June
STOP THE FLOP
WE’VE had the Chelsea Flower Show – and now it’s time for the Chelsea Chop.
It’s an easy way of cutting back herbaceous perennials to encourage bushiness, side shoots and to stop the flop!
It also promotes longer flowering – so you have colour later in the season too.
Herbaceous perennials are those that die back completely in the winter and then start to put on leggy growth very quickly once the soil warms up.
But if you prune them back by a third to a half – this should stop the problems.
Gardening hero Beth Chatto has previously said: “For an even longer display, you can chop some stems on a plant by a third, but not chop other stems on the same plant.
“The uncut part will flower first, and the cut part will flower later.”
CUT TO THE CHASE
‘BRITISH Flowers Week’ starts on Monday with the aim of shining a light on the British cut flower industry.
Run by Flowers From the Farm – the industry body promoting small-scale growers of local, seasonal British cut flowers – this year’s theme is “Igniting the passion for British cut flowers”.
For a list of flower filled events to inspire and engage; from flower flashes, pop-up stalls and window displays — to talks, flower-field tours, sustainable floristry workshops and demonstrations, visit www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk/events
FLOWER POWER
VOLUNTEERS week starts on Monday, and there’s plenty of chances to get involved in gardening all over the country.
From wildflower sowing in the Royal Parks, to community gardening – find out more at www.volunteersweek.org/get-involved/
GET KIDS GARDENING
Its the final weekend of National Children’s Gardening Week – and there’s still time to enter a prize draw for a chance to get your hands on The World of Peter Rabbit seed kits.
Penguin Random House Children’s and Seed Pantry will randomly select 500 winners to get a Peter Rabbit Veg Patch Grow Kits to families on June 24.
Neil Whitehead, founder of Seed Pantry, told Sun Gardening: “The Seed Pantry team are so proud to partner with The World of Peter Rabbit to bring our growing kits to families in time for National Children’s Gardening Week.”
“The trend for gardening and growing your own food and flowers is increasingly popular and our new Peter Rabbit collection makes a great addition to our evolving range of outdoor activity products for all ages.
“Gardening is a fun and rewarding activity, and it’s so important to get children involved from a young age to understand where food comes from and to enjoy the many health and well-being benefits that nature-based activities provide.”
This is a prize draw so entries must be received by 23rd June 2024 at 11:59PM GMT. See T&C’s here: https://www.seedpantry.co.uk/prize-draw-terms-and-conditions
THIS WEEK’S JOB
My gardens collapsing all over the place after all the rain – so it’s time to stake and support your leggy perennials.
TOP TIP
Try to keep your alliums going a bit longer – they need the energy to come back again next year – but they’re also great to dry and spray paint for interior flower decorations.
SAVE!
GET your weeds out with this £19.99 Dutch Hoe from Homebase
Or go for the £8.99 version from The Range.
WIN!
ONE lucky reader can get their hands on a Navimow iSeries robotic mower – Powered by Segway – worth £949!
Packed with AI-powered features, including an AI assistant mapping function, it’s easy to set up via the Navimow app to give you a lush lawn every time.
To enter fill in this FORM
Or for more details and to enter, visit www.thesun.co.uk/SEGWAY
Or write to Sun SEGWAY competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP.
Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 15/06/24.
Full T&C’s HERE
LEARN!
LEARN!
Q. I have a front garden with roses and they all bloom at different times. I had thought it was because some were planted in spring and some in autumn. Is there a method of synchronizing these please? Ray Snowden, Retford, Notts.
A. Roses bloom from Spring right through until Autumn – and although there is no way of synchronising the different types and cultivars, with careful deadheading – early and often – you should be able to get them to bloom all summer so it’s less scattergun. Make sure you cut off the faded or damaged bud just above the first set of full, healthy leaves. And fertilize, feed and water.