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Autumn news update from Thompson & Morgan

Left: T&M Flower of the Year Nasturtium 'Orchid Flame' Right: Beetroot Morello Photo credit: Thompson & Morgan New Season We're pleased to announce that we've seen a strong start to sales from our newly-launched 2019 mail order seed range. Flower of the Year, Nasturtium 'Orchid Flame', Beet…

Tomato Soup Recipe

Tomato SoupThompson & Morgan Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 15 mins Cook Time 45 mins Total Time 1 hr Course Soup Servings 4 Calories 123 kcal Ingredients 1x2x3x2 bay leaves1 carrot1 celery stick1 medium onion1 kg fresh tomatoes2 tbsp olive oilPinch of sugar2 tsp tomato purée1. 2 litres hot…

Ellen Mary's Top 5 Houseplants

Houseplants are bang on trend at the moment and rightly so because not only are they aesthetically pleasing and a great way to soften interiors but they are unbelievably good for us to have around. Many house plants remove large amounts of common toxins from the air around us. My own house is full…

Top tips to attract wildlife to your garden

A few changes to your garden can make it a paradise for wildlifeImage: Coatesy The best way to attract more wildlife to your garden is to provide a habitat complete with food and forage sources, shelter for a wide variety of creatures, and an accessible water source. We asked some of our favourite…

Geoff Stonebanks Driftwood Garden Update

I saw this posted on social media recently! 'Gardening is an art that uses ´¼éowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas'. It was credited to Elizabeth Murray. It really tugged at my own perception of how I garden myself. As someone who has no formal background in gardening of any…

Making a start on your plot

So you’re now the proud tenant of your new plot. You look, you scratch your head, you stand and survey. The fact of the matter is, there is only one way to get a plot up and running and that’s hard work. I started with cutting through the bramble jungle, once cut down to ground level…

Yacón – makes sugar-free sweetener!

Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius) aka Peruvian ground apple, Bolivian sunrootYacon – makes sugar-free sweetener!Sweet-tasting tuber makes ‘no-sugar’ syrup suitable for diabeticsHere’s an interesting tuber with the texture of water chestnuts and a sweet taste of pear with a…

Houseplant Watering Guide

Image: ShutterstockTo water or not to water? That is the question asked by many a gardener, their watering can hovering over a stubbornly mute Aspidistra which refuses to reveal whether it's thirsty or not! 'When did I last water it?' you ask yourself. 'Last week? Last month? .... Last year?' At…

It’s your neighbourhood – community gardening

My wife Pat and I are involved in ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ along with 37 other groups, we are known as Forest Road Greenbelt Garden’s. This competition was set up to encourage the improvement of our community gardening through innovative use of trees, plants and shrubs.Our…

Make a change to your plant choices

Make a positive change to your plant choices this spring – new from Michael PerryPerhaps you’ve become used to growing the same plants each year, regardless of whether they perform well for you or not! You may even doubt your own gardening skills when those plants fail or succumb to…

Why is Sustainable Gardening so Important These Days?

In essence, sustainable gardening is not a new term, but the practice has started gaining traction recently. What gardening sustainably means, what does the process involve, and what makes it so important today? What is Sustainable Gardening? It is vital to make one crucial distinction. Cultivating…

Ten Wonderful Wildlife Blogs

Feel inspired - and grab your binoculars - for a chance to spot these elusive little creatures this summer Image:Shutterstock If you love nothing better than to 'stand and stare' in the hope of spotting some of the UK's phenomenal, but rather shy, wildlife, have we got a treat for you. Here's our…

Garden ready trio

Our new garden ready trio consists of our three customer favourites, Sweet William Mixed, Polyanthus Most Scented Mixed and Primrose Husky Mixed. There is no need to wait, our garden ready trio can be planted straight into your garden – it couldn’t be easier! Our garden ready plants…

Make a change to your plant choices – 3

Next in my ‘Make a change to your plant choices’ theme are some hard-working plants for beds, baskets and borders.Laurentia ‘Indigo Stars’If your bedding and basket plants don’t usually last beyond August, then try this…Laurentia ‘Indigo Stars’This…

Top tips for healthy houseplants

Add some greenery to your home with houseplantsImage: Thejoyofplants. co. uk Have you always thought how nice it would be to liven up your home with a selection of stunning houseplants? If you don't know which plants to choose or how to keep them alive, we've got just the information you need to…

Thompson & Morgan gives RHS Young School Gardener the gardening bug

Lucas Hatch with his runner bean crops11-year old Lucas Hatch from Woodbridge in Suffolk first got into gardening 4 years ago after writing to Thompson & Morgan asking for a donation of seeds for his primary school.This year he won the RHS Young School Gardener of the Year 2012 after wowing the…

Fuchsia Festival at Driftwood

It’s like a fuchsia festival every summer in my garden! I have been collecting them since inheriting 2 standard specimens from family members, one from my Aunt, Margaret Grindrod, in 2004 (plant pictured in 2005 on left) and one from my father, Ron Stonebanks, in 2007, (plant pictured in …

Why I like to grow potatoes

Read guest blogger Richard Barrett’s advice on avoiding potato blightWhy I like to grow potatoesThe potato started life as food for the poor but has risen in value to become a favourite vegetable for everybody.  I like to grow my own potatoes because I then know in what conditions they have…

The vegetable revolution

There’s a vegetable revolution going on, one which is set to change the face of allotments, and engage a whole new audience. It’s rainbow veg!Get on board with the rainbow veg movement and you’ll find that carrots are not only orange, but also purple, yellow, even white. You can…

Indoor Plants: The Natural Air Purifiers (We Need To Know More About)

While many people are not aware of it, the fact is that indoor plants act as nature's very own air purifiers. Many scientists have now suggested that it is very important to use air-purifying plants in both your home as well as your office to help detoxify the atmosphere in the space where you live…

Tomato chutney recipe

Tomato chutneyThe Marmalade Teapot Print Recipe Pin Recipe Ingredients 1 kg tomatoes 2 onions 2 cloves garlic 250 g soft light brown sugar 300 ml cider vinegar tsp ground ginger tsp paprika 2 tsp mustard seeds Notes Tomatoes are delicious, easy to grow, and packed with antioxidants. Gluts of…

Gardening news – grass-free lawn, coronation meadows

Read this week’s snippets of recent gardening news stories here…Coronation meadowsCoronation Meadows InitiativeTo celebrate the 60th anniversary of the coronation, HRH Prince of Wales has set up the Coronation Meadows Initiative to create or restore 60 meadows throughout the UK, with…

Customer trial panel member profile – Harry Cook

Customer trial panel member Harry Cook has many years of gardening experience, winning several awards for his own garden displays. He made the news last year when he stopped thieves from taking his award-winning petunias!Harry CookMy name is Harry Cook. I stared gardening at a young age when I…

It's a Jungle Out There

We all love creatures great and small, right. I would far rather employ the birds and bees than use chemical bug control and so we go to great lengths to entice them into our garden. But then there is the small matter of our six cats to consider. And so we constructed the Catio: By encasing the…

Chunky sausage & tomato pasta

Chunky sausage & tomato pastaThompson & MorganA quick, easy to make pasta dish. Sweet, fresh cherry tomatoes with succulent sausages and italian flavour. An all round family favourite. Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 5 minsCook Time 20 minsTotal Time 25 mins Course Main Course Servings…

The Journey of Floral Fantasia

It's been an amazing experience to watch the garden on its wonderful journey from a blank canvas to the flourishing beauty that it is today. I joined T&M back in April and one of my first projects to get my teeth stuck into was our 'Floral Fantasia' garden at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex near…

Pick a bouquet a week – and the flowers still keep coming!

Pick a bouquet a week – and the flowers still keep coming!There’s a great deal of excitement at Thompson & Morgan, one of the UK’s largest mail order seed andplant companies. And it’s all about some very unusual plants!We’ve all seen bunches of alstroemeria (or…

DIY Dahlia Festival

It always intrigues me how different plants come in and out of fashion. Dahlias are one such plant that has ridden the roller coaster of popularity over the last century - but right now, they are definitely on the up! ®Sue Sanderson, Thompson & Morgan - Dahlias at Anglesey Abbey,…

Photo competition winners announced!

2012 photo competition winners announcedThe winners of Thompson & Morgan’s 2012 photo competition have been announced! This year we received hundreds of entries for each category – thank you to all who participated. The decisions were made much more difficult by the high quality of…

Gardening on a budget

In his first blog post for Thompson & Morgan, gardener Richard Laker writes about the challenges of gardening on a budget…My name is Richard Laker, I am (just) the better side of 30. I live on the North Essex coastline and this is the start of my second full year gardening at this house.I…

Raspberry surprise – a little bit of help in the garden

Raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty’ ™ is a dwarf variety that is claimed to grow to just 120cm (36”) – the perfect size for a patio pot, or a sunny place in even the smallest veggie plot. I’ve decided to put this to the test and see just how well they get on when planted in…

Green-fingered gardening tips from the experts

No matter how expert you are at gardening, there's always something new to learn!Image source: Aya Images The great thing about gardening is that no matter how expert you are, you never reach the end of your personal learning curve. To help you a little further along the way, we asked some of our…

Do you grow your own? BBC Two needs you!

Do you grow your own fruit, veg and flowers and do you know what to do with them?Are you the complete kitchen gardener?Do you grow your own? BBC Two needs you!Producers at BBC Two are creating a brand new show to find the nation’s best kitchen gardener. With food prices on the increase,…

Thompson & Morgan supplies flower bulbs for ‘Spruce up Sproughton’

Thompson & Morgan was recently contacted to provide a number of flower bulbs for ‘Spruce up Sproughton’, a local community project.The 6-month project to improve the safety and overall appearance of a Suffolk village underpass was completed this week, with help from the local police…

This summer I had great success with my tomato plants!

In previous years I have grown my tomato plants in grow bags in my mum and dad’s conservatory. I have grown various varieties including; Gardener’s Delight, Golden Sunrise, Beef Steak, Mr Stripey Tigerella, Money Maker, Alicante and tumbling tomatoes.This year my mum and dad bought a…

Gardening news – National Allotments Week, butterflies and nitrogen

In this week’s gardening news we’ll be talking about National Allotments Week, the effect of weather on butterflies and a new technique to enable plants to source nitrogen from the air.National Allotments Week 5th-11th AugustThe National Allotment Society’s yearly celebration of…

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