Local Gardener Newspaper

04/07/2025

🌱 **Struggling with heavy clay soil?** 🌧️ Your garden doesn’t have to stay sticky, soggy, or rock-hard!

✨ **GYPSUM is the game-changer** you’ve been waiting for. It breaks up compacted clay, improves drainage, and helps roots breathe — all without changing your soil’s pH. 💧🌿

✔️ Improves soil structure
✔️ Encourages root growth
✔️ Reduces surface crusting
✔️ Available in easy-to-use liquid form for fast results!

We especially love **liquid gypsum** — just spray it on, water it in, and let nature do the rest. Perfect for lawns, veg plots, and garden beds alike.

💬 Have you tried gypsum in your garden? Let us know your results or ask questions below 👇

Read the full article https://localgardener.org/how-to-improve-clay-soil-turning-heavy-ground-into-a-productive-garden/

How to Improve Clay Soil by using liquid gypsum

01/07/2025

🐾 If Seeds Were Dogs, You’d Be Sued for Letting Them Have Puppies 🌱
Imagine you spend a fortune on a rare breed — a champion bloodline retriever. But before you take it home, the breeder makes you sign a contract:
You can never breed it.
You can’t sell or give away its puppies.
And if any are born by accident? You owe them — or you get sued.

Sounds outrageous, right?
That’s exactly how seed patents work for farmers. They can buy the seed, grow the crop — but they’re not allowed to save or replant the next generation, even if it came from their own soil.

🔍 Read the full article to find out how corporations came to own the building blocks of our food — and what it means for farmers, biodiversity, and your dinner plate.

👉 Read the full article here

For thousands of years, farmers saved seeds from their crops and replanted them the next season. Seeds were part of the natural cycle — something shared,

01/07/2025

🌾 **Sprayed Before You Eat It**

In the UK, farmers are legally allowed to spray **glyphosate (weedkiller)** on crops like **wheat, oats, and barley — just days before harvest**.

Why?
👉 To dry them out faster.
👉 To make harvesting easier.
But there’s a catch...

🔬 Glyphosate can leave **residues in food** — including bread, porridge, and cereal.
🧪 It’s been found in UK supermarket products.
🥖 No label. No warning. Most people don’t even know.

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# # # 🛒 What can you do?

✅ Choose organic
✅ Support glyphosate-free brands
✅ Ask why it’s allowed
Read the full story here https://localgardener.org/sprayed-before-you-eat-it-the-uks-hidden-use-of-glyphosate-on-food-crops/

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💬 Have you heard of this before?
📲 Share if you think **weedkiller shouldn’t be sprayed right before your food is harvested.**



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Most people know glyphosate as the weedkiller in Roundup — something you spray on driveways or patios to kill unwanted growth. But in UK agriculture,

22/05/2025

Do you have the Uk's most neglected garden? Win a professional garden tidy-up https://localgardener.org/the-hunt-for-the-uks-most-neglected-garden/

22/05/2025

🌿🎶 Where Have All the Songbirds Gone? 🎶🌿

Step into your garden and listen… is it quieter than it used to be?

Across the UK, our once-familiar dawn chorus is fading. Since 1970, we've lost over 73 million birds from our skies. Tree sparrows, nightingales, spotted flycatchers—once common—are now vanishing before our eyes.

Why?
👉 Habitat loss
👉 Pesticides
👉 Insect declines
👉 Climate change
👉 Light pollution
👉 Disease

And yet… there’s hope.
Every garden, balcony, and allotment can become a refuge.

🪴 Plant native shrubs
🪺 Put up nest boxes
🐞 Stop using chemicals
🌾 Leave wild corners
🍽️ Feed birds safely
💧 Offer water
💡 Switch off garden lights

🕊️ Together, we can bring back the birdsong.

💚 Read the full article in the Local Gardener Newspaper https://localgardener.org/disappearing-songbirds-the-uks-silent-crisis/

Once the familiar soundtrack to every morning stroll or afternoon in the garden, the cheerful chorus of the UK’s songbirds is growing quieter. Since the

14/05/2025

🌿 What to Feed Your Plants in May 🌸

May is the perfect time to give your garden a nutritional boost! As flowers bloom, veg plots fill out, and fruit sets, the right feed can mean the difference between a good garden and a great one.

💧 Not sure what to use? We’ve put together a simple guide — plus a handy quick-reference table — to help you know exactly what to feed and when.

👨‍🌾 From tomatoes to tulips, lettuce to lawns, find out:
✅ The best feed for flowers, veg, fruit & lawns
✅ How often to feed different plant types
✅ Tips to keep your garden healthy all season

👉 Read the full guide here: https://localgardener.org/what-to-feed-plants-in-may/

12/05/2025

🌿 Mental Wellbeing in Horticulture Matters 🌿

Working in horticulture is rewarding—but it’s also physically and mentally demanding. With the current pressures of rising costs, job uncertainty and longer NHS waits, many of us are feeling the strain.

👉 According to Perennial’s Wellbeing Research Report 2025*(out mid-May), nearly 83% of people in horticulture scored low or average for mental wellbeing.

Whether you're a gardener, florist, greenkeeper, landscaper, nursery worker or garden centre staff, the challenges are real—and they deserve to be addressed.

🧠 That’s why we need open, honest conversations about mental health at work.

Perennial has developed FREE tools to support the horticultural community:

✅ Free Webinars (May–Nov 2025)
• For managers: How to have confident mental health conversations
• For HR/owners: Do we need Mental Health First Aiders?

✅ Downloadable Resource Pack
Includes wellbeing tools & support services to share with your team

✅ MHFA Ambassador Network
For trained Mental Health First Aiders in horticulture—sharing best practice and peer support

💬 The horticulture industry is wonderful, but it does have its challenges. We need to support each other to ensure everyone can access the advice and help they need." – Clare Downs, Head of Preventative Services, Perennial

👉 Start the conversation today.
📲 Book a webinar and explore all resources: [perennial.org.uk/workplace-wellbeing](https://perennial.org.uk/workplace-wellbeing)

11/05/2025

Check out what went on at the spring flower show! https://localgardener.org/rhs-malvern-spring-festival-2025-trolleys-at-the-ready-for-a-grand-day-out/

07/05/2025

🌿🌸 May Care for Delphiniums & Lupins – Prepare for a Spectacular Summer Show! 🌸🌿

Two of the stars of the early summer border—delphiniums and lupins—are really getting into their stride in May. With a little attention now, you’ll be rewarded with towering spires of colour that are the pride of any cottage-style garden.

Here’s how to help them thrive this month:

✔️ Stake Early – Get supports in place before plants get too tall. Delphinium stems are especially prone to snapping in wind or heavy rain. Use canes or grow-through rings.

✔️ Feed for Flower Power – A high-potash liquid feed (like tomato feed) every 2–3 weeks encourages strong stems and vibrant blooms.

✔️ Water Well – Deep watering helps develop strong roots. Especially important during dry spells.

✔️ Watch for Pests – Delphiniums are loved by slugs and snails. Use organic slug pellets, wool pellets, or late-night checks to protect young growth.

✔️ Deadhead Lupins – Once flower spikes fade, cut them back to encourage a second flush later in summer.

Both plants add height, colour, and that classic English garden feel. Give them a bit of love in May, and they’ll be the stars of your June borders! 🌿💙💜

07/05/2025

🌿🌼 It’s National Hedgerow Week! 🌼🌿
(May 6–12, 2025)

This week we’re celebrating one of the UK’s most iconic – and underappreciated – natural treasures: the humble hedgerow.

From hawthorn and blackthorn to elder, dog rose, hazel, and honeysuckle, hedgerows are vital green corridors that support:
🌱 Over 2,000 species of plants and animals
🐦 Nesting birds and pollinating insects
🦊 Mammals, amphibians, and hedgehogs
🌾 Soil health, wind protection, and water regulation

They’re living boundaries, full of heritage and biodiversity—just as important as ancient woodlands or wildflower meadows.

This , take a moment to:
✅ Walk beside a hedgerow and notice what’s growing
✅ Learn about traditional hedgelaying
✅ Plant or care for a hedge in your own garden
✅ Share the love with photos or stories!

Let’s keep our hedgerows healthy and thriving—for wildlife, for landscape, and for future generations. 💚

https://localgardener.org/national-hedgerow-week-2025-the-future-of-hedgerows/

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07/05/2025

🌸 **Sweet Pea Tip: It's All About the Shape!** 🌸

If you're growing sweet peas this year, here's a gardener’s secret: the shape of your trellis matters more than you think!

While wigwams look charming, the best structure for strong stems and a longer bloom period is a V-shaped or fan-style trellis—wider at the top than the base. This gives your plants better airflow, more light, and space to grow straight, untangled stems—perfect for cutting or showing.

🪴 Bonus tip: Tie in each stem every few days to guide their growth and prevent them from flopping or tangling.

Train them right in May, and your sweet peas will reward you all summer long! 🌿💐

https://localgardener.org/sweet-peas-in-may/

06/05/2025

🌿 Tomato Time! 🍅

May is the perfect moment to pot on your tomato seedlings—giving them more space to grow strong before they move to their final home later this month.

✔️ Move them into 9cm pots with fresh compost
✔️ Bury them deeper to encourage strong roots
✔️ Keep them warm, bright, and watered
✔️ Add labels if you're growing different varieties!

💡 Top tip: Always handle seedlings by the leaves, not the stems—they’re surprisingly delicate at this stage!

🌱❤️

https://localgardener.org/potting-on-tomato-seedlings-in-may/