Monkton Elm News, Events and Tips Blog

  10 Ideas for Designing Smaller Gardens The lovely, warm, summer days are upon us! As I laze about in the heat of my little garden space, I find myself desperate for a cool shady area, somewhere tranquil I can relax in, maybe even invite friends over. But where to start? How do I turn this little patch of ground into something special? Firstly, its important start with a basic garden plan. Unplanned or haphazard gardens can make the space seem smaller! The first rule for any small garden is that even if it's tiny it should have a coherent design. A good idea is to start with a simple geometric layout for your garden beds and paving and seating area. Here are some great suggestions from the team at Monkton Elm: 1. Make use of focal points A good tip is to create a focal point. Using an arbour or pergola in your little garden is a classic landscaping hack, adding height and depth to a small space. You can do the same with vertical or raised beds, small trees, or garden sculpture...

Monkton Elm Plant of the Month  Our plant of the month for July, is the Salvia.  With a wide variety to choose from, these spires of flowers can grace any garden! From the larger, more established plants, we have a number of smaller plant pots, with younger plants, making it an excellent value for money purchase! Our newest addition to our range of Salvias is the 'Naomy Tree', a soft pink salvia with larger flowers than most commonly found varieties, the Salvia Naomy is a romantic and subtle bloom that flowers profusely from June to September. Its soft colours and gentle sage scented leaves are ideal for creating a calming colour scheme in the garden to reduce stress.   Plant with soft pastel blues and whites for a gentle and peaceful summer display of colour . Salvias are a great group of plants for attracting pollinators into the garden, bees and butterflies love them! There are many different types of Salvias, some hardy and some not so hardy. Choose from shrub...

There is nothing better than a bowl of freshly picked, ripe strawberries, warm from the sun, sprinkled with sugar and doused with cream! Lets take a look at some of our favourite strawberry varieties, along with some other soft fruit that will make your mouth water. All can be grown in pots, and with a little care, will reward you handsomely for several years to come. Strawberry plants are available in three main types – summer fruiting, ever bearers and day-neutral.  If you have room for just a few plants, summer fruiting varieties would be the best for you.  There is a huge choice here, but we love 'Honeyoye' (even though its name is hard to pronounce!) for early crops, Rhapsody for late cropping, and good old 'Elsanta' as a good all-rounder.  Elsanta is the variety most often grown for the supermarkets, for good reason.  It is heavy cropping, easy to grow and with a good flavour.  If you have the space, try some of each to extend your picking season. E...

Chelsea Flower Show is the pinnacle of the gardening year – for over 100 years it has been inspiring gardeners worldwide. The extensive television coverage it now attracts means that everyone can enjoy a little piece of loveliness. The many glorious show gardens are always outstanding and a common thread amongst them is often the Allium bulb. 

Butterflies are among the most beautiful wild creatures you can attract to your garden, but they are becoming rarer. You can help reverse this decline by creating a butterfly garden.

Having a beehive in your garden can bring you closer to nature and rewards you with delicious honey to eat, plus you’re helping to pollinate your plants and those in your neighbourhood.

On a decent day, if you’ve got the urge and your secateurs are handy, it’s time to get out into the garden and give a few things a haircut.

Our Managing Director, Mike Lind, has been announced as the Chairman elect for 2018/19 for one of the nation’s leading horticultural bodies, the Garden Centre Association (GCA).

A bigger Californian Lilac giving year round structure and leaf colour as well as a rich display of spring flowers.  

Despite Good Friday being traditionally the last day for getting your seed spuds in, it is still Ok to plant them throughout April.

Children from Somerset can get up close to some furry friends and some slimy ones too during our Pet Centre’s Cuddle Club on Saturday, April 15 from 10am until 4pm.

We will be offering free gardening advice to all of our customers on all aspects of gardening as part of National Gardening Week from Monday, April 10 until Saturday, April 15.

Now that the evenings are lighter and the weather is slowly improving, it’s time to think about giving your garden a spring clean. Many people spring clean the home so why not the garden too?

If you were lucky enough to receive an orchid for Mother’s Day or have simply picked up one of the plants as a treat to yourself then you’re probably wondering how best to care for it.

We’re inviting Somerset crafters to put their sewing skills to the test and help raise money for charity this year (2017).

If you’re growing some fruit and vegetables this year then we have a couple of quick five minute fixes you should be putting into practice this month, whether you’re growing on a patio or an allotment:

Tomatoes are one of the easiest crops to grow if you haven’t tried GYO before. Nothing beats the satisfaction of eating your own, home-grown produce, so we’ve put together a handy step-by-step guide to help you if you’re a bit of a beginner.

The Easter bunny has visited us and hidden treasure all around the garden centre and we are challenging children to find it all for the chance to win a prize. Treasure hunt forms will be available from our reception desk from Monday, April 3 until Thursday, April 13 and these include helpful instructions on how to take part.

We’re offering you the chance to get free gardening advice and hints and tips on all aspects of gardening from Grown Your Own (GYO) to patio plot planting this and next month (March and April, 2017).

The primrose is a native European plant, which derives its name from the Latin ‘prima’, or first, and ‘rosa’ or rose. The first rose, meaning a symbol for the arrival of spring in the UK.