Amateur Gardening

Every week, Amateur Gardening is the first choice for both beginners and knowledgeable gardeners looking for advice and easy-to-follow practical features on growing flowers, trees, shrubs as well as fruit and vegetables. Be inspired, by our beautifully illustrated features covering plant and flower groups, both home grown and exotic, and take a sneak peek into some of the most beautiful private gardens around the country. Plus, every week we feature expert opinion and tips from some of gardening’s most influential exponents including Toby Buckland, Bob Flowerdew, Anne Swithinbank, Peter Seabrook and Jo Whittingham.

Editor Letter

Make your cash go further • Ruth offers money-saving tips if you’re feeling the pinch

Keeping your plants healthy • Robust plants are low-maintenance and cheap!

Renovating a raised bed • Use winter to catch up on practical tasks, says Ruth

Prune before spring arrives • Ruth tools-up for the season’s last cuts

Planting soft fruit bushes • Now is the perfect time to increase your stock, says Ruth

Scent to set you in a spin! • Perfect summer bedding for beds and tubs, says Ruth

Tree care for nests • A few canny tricks can make trees more appealing to your feathered friends at nesting time, as Bob explains

We’re halfway there • Val enjoys the plants that show us spring is approaching

Focus on… Planting garlic • Make sure you know the best planting, timings and soil conditions so you can grow the best garlic possible. Lucy explains how to best prep as you crack open the cloves

Perennial violas • Popular with the Victorians, perennial violas are long-lived plants with a generous spring to autumn flowering, says Anne Swithinbank, as she reveals her favourites

Set the stage with an auricula theatre • Take a tip from the Victorians and put these jewel-bright flowers in the spotlight with a plant theatre, says Louise Curley

This week… Hellebores • Easy-to-grow hellebores provide a burst of colour in winter and early spring

Ask JOHN NEGUS • John will reply personally to all your gardening questions

Subscribe today • Get 6 issues for £6

A gardener’s MISCELLANY • Gardening’s king of trivia and brain-teasers, Graham Clarke

AG’s Garden Wall

Word search

Crossword • …just for fun!

Grow your own mistletoe • Steve and Val Bradley explain how to use berries to propagate your own mistletoe

Get smart with wood chippings

Can’t wait for the postie! • Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com

The wildlife-haven garden • Borders in a cottage-garden style surround the verdant lawn behind Peter and Sheena Clark’s 19th century home near Bristol, as Sue Bradley explains

Pond of delights • A timely frog chorus prompts Toby to clean up his garden water feature and ponder over some long-forgotten gems