Gardening

Articles on gardening

Should we hire a garden designer?

Fionnuala Fallon: Great garden designers and landscape architects are like artists, marrying together practical, environmental and aesthetic elements

Ready or not? The expert guide to buying fruit – so it is always ripe and delicious

Give an apple a light flick with your finger and listen. And scratch the surface of a lemon with your fingernail

‘Fellas who were taking the piss are now looking for tips’: at home in the garden with Ireland and Munster rugby star Peter O’Mahony

Ireland and Munster star enjoys tending to his 2,000sq ft garden when not in the ruck. But will his green fingers grow beyond a hobby?

The best ornamental grasses for gardens: the ones to pick and how to grow them

The long-lasting feathers of ornamental grasses are one of their greatest charms

‘My 15-year-old tree is displaying blighting. How can I save it’

‘It has been displaying a blighting appearance for the past few years’

After a washout summer, the boxes of spring-flowering bulbs will soon start to arrive

The long, autumunal shadows herald the season of mucky fingers, hard physical work and great joy

‘Something ate my potatoes underground. What could have done this?

A cat might be the best form of defence against the likely rodent culprits

I moved my plant to a bigger pot and now the leaves are falling off. What can I do?

Since I repotted it into a bigger pot, its bottom leaves have started to droop and fall off

Autumn comes bearing gifts for the garden

The days may be shorter and darker, but there are still vivid pleasures to be found in the garden, from roses to doughty hawthorn and holly

How do I get rid of ant nests in my polytunnel?

There are simple things you can do to discourage them without resorting to harmful and often ineffective insecticides

A wealth of late-blooming plants are bright stars of the autumn garden

What the daisy family, Asteraceae, have in common is daisy-shaped flowers and ability to feed bees, butterflies, hoverflies and many other pollinating insects

‘Good looks aren’t enough for potatoes. They’ve got to taste delicious.’

Raymond Higgins grows champion-level potatoes from his allotments near Blarney in Cork

I want to go with peat-free gardening: how can I do it?

Fionnuala Fallon: Use of peat is gradually being phased out due to EU targets to mitigate climate change, support biodiversity, and protect wetlands

Forever flowers: the handful of biennials on my must-grow list

Canterbury bells, Sweet William, foxgloves and wallflowers are among my favourite flowers

Is my compost doomed after all this rain?

After returning from a week away, the freshly composted areas were thriving with tiny nettle plants

How do I get rid of coltsfoot without using weedkiller?

I am avoiding chemical weedkillers for environmental reasons

Order spring-flowering bulbs now to get your pick of the bunch

If you have a polytunnel or glasshouse, August is also the month to sow seeds of a variety of delicious crops to keep it well stocked over winter

The simple home-maintenance jobs that are ideal to do at this time of the year

While Irish summer weather may not be ideal for the beach or a barbeque, it can be just right for taking care of jobs around the house

Irish wildflowers: Growing your own mini-meadow isn’t always easy but the results are magical

A home for native wildflowers isn’t always easy to cultivate, but careful planning makes for fun and magical results

My garden is being wrecked by a fox: what to do?

Fionnuala Fallon Q&A: Much to my dismay the soil was dug up in my raised bed in various spots and the blocking material was torn. Every night, the same thing

I think I might have vine weevils: Should I be worried?

This is a common pest in many Irish gardens but can be managed

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