#companion-planting

#companion-planting

When considering the cheapest fruit to grow, you want something that's high-yielding, low-maintenance, and ideally fast-growing. Cheap can also be relative - if a fruit is generally affordable and available in stores, it's probably not worth the effort and garden space to grow it yourself.

Helen Whittaker's vibrant stained glass Paradise window celebrates the quest of the Irish traveller St Brandon, better known as St Brendan, who spent a lifetime searching for an earthly Garden of Eden.

To fuel our bodies, we must eat other living things, killing them in the process. However, most plants and algae are autotrophs. They bootstrap their biomass without the barbarism of eating others: using photosynthesis, turning sunlight, water, and carbon into energy.

The Queen Elizabeth II Garden will officially open to the public on Monday April 27, commemorating the late monarch's 100th birthday with a beautiful landscape filled with climate-resilient plants and wildlife habitats.

Composting allows food scraps to be recycled into organic material for gardening, keeping waste out of landfills. However, not all tea bags are compostable.

Plump, wiggly slugs may look innocuous, but they can wreak serious havoc on a carefully-curated garden, even causing total crop failure.

The industrious buzz of bees tackling the dregs of cherry blossom was lawnmower-loud, accompanied by back off peeps from blackbirds nesting in the ivy.

Aquaponics systems utilize one gallon of water to produce a kilogram of leafy greens, compared to over 30 gallons in traditional farming, showcasing remarkable efficiency.

Crushed clean, dry eggshells, when scattered over the soil, are intended to stop adult gnats from laying eggs and potentially add natural fertilizer. However, they merely sit on the surface, collecting dust, while the gnats remain attracted to the damp compost.

Using a sharp, sterile tool such as clippers or pruners is essential when harvesting peppers. Pulling them off by hand can damage the plant, leading to fewer fruits.

Around a third of UK gardeners use pesticides, and our studies found that house sparrow numbers, for example, were nearly 40% lower in gardens where the pesticide metaldehyde was used. By reducing pesticide use, you can actively encourage birds back into your outdoor spaces, as they rely on invertebrates such as slugs and snails as natural prey.

Raised beds provide access to fresh food, even organic veggies and fruits if you choose, for a fraction of grocery store prices.

Starting plants from seed extends your relationship with the garden, gives you more control over seed sourcing, and saves real money compared to buying nursery starts, sometimes as much as 90% per plant.

To an unimaginable eye, a seed looks inert. Yet they are packed with genetic information and biological processes poised to unfold. All it takes is the right configuration of signals and stimuli from the environment to let them know it's time to dare to grow.

The term "soil fatigue" or exhaustion refers to the condition that soil profiles take on when they've been heavily monocropped and untended. This soil is devoid of the microbial content that offers plants bioavailable food. It lacks the fungal and bacterial organisms that interact with plant nutrients.

When you think of farming, what ingredients do you generally associate with a successful harvest? The basics certainly come to mind: fertile soil, plenty of sunlight and lots of water. But there are other variables that can also mean the difference between a crop of healthy fruits and vegetables and a large heap of organic waste. And it turns out that one of those variables is a very small hawk.