Gardening Events, and Climate News from July 2007
How to grow: heleniums (20/07/2007)
Val Bourne offers her tips on how to grow heleniums in your garden
If there's one plant that can inject a little razzle-dazzle into the border during this gloomy summer, it is Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer'.
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How to grow: Chusan palm(13/07/2007)
In pictures: How to grow - the spring collection
Alun Rees doles out some handy tips on growing the Chusan palm
Palms are not the first plants one thinks of growing in this country, but don't rule them out. Several true palm species will grow outdoors in Britain, especially on the south and western coasts of Scotland, where winters are mild because of the Gulf Stream.
Pelargoniums and schizanthus: a pair of potted paragons
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Good companions
Gardeners should combine schizanthus with pelargoniums for a stunning summer display, writes Sarah Raven
If you have a greenhouse, conservatory or sunny porch, it should be full of pelargoniums that will flower continually for you from early summer until the winter. But what will make a splash after that?
Classic cottage with a Mediterranean twist (29/06/2007)
It's been half a century in the making and is still evolving. Sarah Raven revisits a garden that effortlessly combines the formal with the spontaneous
My parents made a beautiful garden surrounding their Queen Anne farmhouse, Docwras Manor in Shepreth, eight miles south of Cambridge.
It's a real plantsman's garden, with species preferred to hybrids, and old-fashioned to modern. Unusually for this sort of garden, it has a good, clear structure with several different areas, each with their own feel. The site is flat as a pancake, but from the very start they divided it up by using existing walls and planting new hedges.
Local authorities key to climate fight - Benn(12 July 2007)
New Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, wants to see councils in the forefront of the fight against climate change. He believes local authorities have a vital role to play in ensuring more is being done at the grassroots to police the environment and make the best use of our limited resources. Mr Benn was speaking prior to the annual conference of the Local Government Association at the launch of a new initiative between the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs and local authorities: the Defra - Local Government Joint Environmental Prospectus.
