Garden Answers

Garden Answers is a vibrant and inspiring gardening magazine filled with ingenious design ideas and exciting plant combinations guaranteed to make your garden beautiful.

Welcome

Celebrate SUMMER BRIGHTS

Be inspired by...

Garden parties FOR CHARITY

Be bold with colour

Wish list • These colour-clash plants are new in catalogues

HEDGEHOG HELP FOR 40 YEARS

Beside the seaside • Can you name these coastal plants that you might spot at holiday seaside destinations this summer? Answers on page 14.

WIN 5 BEAUTIFUL SEASONAL BOUQUETS, EACH WORTH £20

What’s on...

GARDEN BIRDS Birdwatch results

30-minute make

Gardeners’ BOOKSHELF

GET COLOUR confident • Tear up the colour rulebook and enjoy the transformational power of the brightest shades, says Lucy Bellamy

Sculpture in a pot

Creative containers • A timeless way to display succulents, especially the low-growing rosette-forming kinds, is in a wide, shallow bowl. They soon cover the surface to make a patchwork cushion of colour, or can be arranged to make a bullseye pattern of concentric rings. Or, try these more unusual ideas...

Lilies • Renowned for their exotic beauty and scent, lilies are a summer garden mainstay, says Sue Fisher

WHAT TO DO THIS Month • There’s an abundance of growth in the garden so it’s good to keep things neat and tidy. You can also get sowing and planting to extend the season

SOW BIENNIAL PLANTS

Summer POND CARE

Plant a summer MEADOW MIX

Natural colour in the garden

“When it comes to planting… if it works, it works! ” • A simple border and lawn arrangement in this small Wiltshire garden offers an eyepopping spectacle of summer colour. Owner Philip Canter shares his approach

“Perennials are my utter fascination” • Borders billow with an abundance of perennials that Tracy Netherway cultivates both for her pleasure and her business

A mecca for plant and garden lovers • Simmering in the summer heat, Bridgewater’s walled Paradise Garden is a treat to visit in July

Enjoy Garden answers and save more than £19 per year

Life on the VEG PATCH • As edible flowers brighten her plot, Jenny Thompson is looking for potential village show winners among her beans and courgettes

Growing CARROTS • July is the last month for sowing these tasty roots to enjoy a late-summer harvest

Solution of the month

Q&A • Will pruning boost clematis flowering? Is cherry tree infected? Read on...

Design Solutions • Create a small oasis of calm with a cool but sophisticated pallette of pale colours, says Sara Edwards

Garden SEATING • Geoff Hodge takes five to relax with the best in garden seating

Over to you!

Flowering shrubs • Here’s this month’s round-up of your top garden performers... thanks for sharing!

Sizzling SUCCULENTS Collections • Easy-grow plants in a range of hardy outdoor and indoor mixes

BUMPER ALLIUM COLLECTION PLANT A SPRING SPECTACULAR • This exciting collection of allium bulbs will fill your garden with pops of colour in early summer, followed by decorative autumn seedheads

Win these gardening goodies! • Enter this month’s crossword and you could win two sets of Curbidge Walking Boots & Cloggies from Town & Country! The entry form is overleaf

“Frogs are the garden’s most important critters” • Columnist Rupert Paul illustrates the benefits of creating a frog-friendly garden habitat