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’s Letter

Last chance summer pruning • Ruth gives trained fruit trees and flowered shrubs a trim

Pruning trained fruit trees • Reduce shoots to let in the sun and help fruits ripen

Keeping the garden on track • Hygiene is about more than a neat garden, says Ruth

Planting a bed of leek plugs • Swapping veggies for chutney helps fill Ruth’s raised bed

How to keep plants fruitful • Ruth keeps her tomatoes and strawberries healthy

Annuals with lots to give • Godetia are a pretty addition and easy to grow, says Ruth

Apple pruning wisdom • If your pruned apples aren’t fruiting well, find out if they are spur-bearing or tip-bearing varieties, says Bob

Isn’t nature wonderful? • Slugs may be garden pests, but they are still an important part of our fragile natural world, as Val explains

Focus on… Edible flowers • Edible blooms add interest and texture to all kinds of sweet and savoury dishes. Find out how you can add elegance and colour to your summer feasts, says Lucy

Great Value Spring-Flowering Bulb Packs Months of dazzling colour-every year! • Transform your spring garden into a masterpiece exploding with early season colour with this selection of favourite bulbs.

Marvels of the Mediterranean • Bring a touch of the Mediterranean to your garden and help drought-proof your plot, says Anne Swithinbank, as she reveals a range of plants suitable for the UK

Unstoppable bloomers • Hazel Sillver looks at a selection of the best long-flowering rose varieties for a small garden that will produce scent and colour during summer and into autumn

This week… Dahlias • For showy blooms from mid-summer until autumn, choose dahlias

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

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

Lawn edging tools • Steve and Val find the best tool for putting the finishing touches to your lawn

How to deadhead roses

Your LETTERS TO WENDY • 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

Nordic-inspired garden • The garden of a 600-year-old cottage near Bristol has been given a Nordic-inspired fresh new look over the past eight years by its latest owners, says Sue Bradley

Mending fences • Toby flags up some of the mistakes people make when building a fence – and explains how to make yours better