Glamorous, gorgeous and gardening-obsessed – This Morning presenter Daisy Payne burst onto our screens after her gardening journey was discovered on social media by a TV producer.
Now 27, she's known on Instagram as @fromgardentogarnish and has a new book out called Start Growing, which she describes as “a year of joyful gardening for beginners.”
Daisy's book is available to buy now on Amazon for £14.99. Credit: Penguin Random House
The book features 40 easy, budget-friendly projects suitable for complete beginners and she told Sun Gardening: “It's the book I wish I'd had when I first started gardening.”
“I hope more young people my age and younger will be interested in television because there are so many benefits. Switching screen time to green time is so important.”
“When I started, I struggled with all the gardening books out there – they assumed you needed knowledge and had a lot of money, which I didn't have.
“This is for people who have never gardened before.”
Daisy's best tips for new gardeners.
Start small. If you've never gardened before, you may feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Focus on the small things and feel successful, which will help you develop skills and confidence. Learn to love mulching. Love it, understand it and do it all the time. Mulching solves a lot of problems. You just need to find a way that works for your space. Understand your soil. The best gardens are those that are in harmony and don't try to fight environmental conditions. Understand what you have and what actually works.
Switching your screen time to green time is very important.
Daisy PayneThis Morning Gardener Don't just go to the garden centre and pick the flowers that are in bloom. Take it slow and steady and choose the right plants. Don't try to do your garden in a weekend. Do it over a long period of time so you can make the right decisions for your soil and the space you want to create. Don't worry if things don't work out or die. Look at the positives of what you learn, what you make wrong, what doesn't go as planned. Have fun. Don't take it too seriously. Sometimes you learn more from your failures than your successes.
Start Growing by Daisy Payne (Ebury Press, £14.99) is out on 6 June.
Daisies in the garden. Photo by Jason Ingram.
Lee Connelly National Children's Garden Week
Stop the flop
The Chelsea Flower Show is over, now it's time for the Chelsea Chop.
This is an easy way to prune perennial herbaceous plants to encourage bushiness and side branches and prevent them from dying back.
They also have a longer flowering period, so they bloom colorfully even later in the season.
Perennial plants die back completely in winter, but as soon as the soil warms up, their stems will elongate and begin to grow.
However, if you prune it by a third to half, the problem should go away.
Gardening hero Beth Chatto previously said: “For an even longer display, cut one of the plant's stems into thirds, but leave other stems of the same plant alone.”
“The uncut parts will flower first, and the cut parts will flower later.”
Asters are the perfect plant for the Chelsea chop. Credit: Alamy
Get to the point
BRITISH Flowers Week, which aims to highlight the UK's cut flower industry, starts on Monday.
Run by Flowers from the Farm, an industry group that promotes small-scale cultivation of local, seasonal British cut flowers, this year's theme is “Ignite a passion for British cut flowers”.
Visit www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk/events for a list of flower-filled events to inspire and interest – from flower flashes, pop-up stalls and window displays to talks, flower farm tours, sustainable floriculture workshops and demonstrations.
Flowers from the Farm is a membership organisation for British artisan cut flower growers. Photo courtesy of Getty
Flower Power
Volunteer Week starts on Monday, with plenty of opportunities to get involved in gardening across the country.
From sowing wildflower seeds to community gardening in Royal Parks – visit www.volunteersweek.org/get-involved/ for more information.
Plant wildflowers in Royal Parks during Volunteer Week next weekend. Credit: Getty
Teach your kids to garden
It's the final weekend of National Children's Gardening Week and you can still enter our prize draw for a chance to win a Peter Rabbit's World seed kit.
Penguin Random House Children's and Seed Pantry will randomly select 500 winners on June 24th to gift their families a Peter Rabbit vegetable patch growing kit.
Neil Whitehead, founder of Seed Pantry, told Sun Gardening: “The team at Seed Pantry are incredibly proud to be partnering with Peter Rabbit's World to bring growing kits to families in time for National Children's Gardening Week.”
“The trend of gardening and growing your own food and flowers is becoming increasingly popular and our new Peter Rabbit collection is a great addition to our evolving range of outdoor activity products for all ages.
“Gardening is a fun and rewarding activity and it's so important to get children involved from an early age so they can understand where their food comes from and enjoy the many health and wellbeing benefits that nature-based activities bring.”
This is a prize draw so entries will be accepted by 11.59pm GMT on 23 June 2024. Terms and conditions can be found here: https://www.seedpantry.co.uk/prize-draw-terms-and-conditions
Win a Peter Rabbit growing kit as part of Kids' Gardening Week
This week's work
After the rains my garden has been falling over in many places, so it's time to stake out the long-stemmed perennials.
Top Tips
Try to let your alliums grow for a little longer – they'll need the energy to grow again next year – and they're also great for drying and spray painting to make indoor floral displays.
Alliums tend to fall over easily, so provide them with some support. Allow to dry when you're done. Credit: Getty
keep!
Get rid of weeds with a £19.99 Dutch hoe from Homebase
This Homebase hoe is sturdy and reliable. Credit: Homebase
Or opt for The Range's £8.99 version.
This carbon steel hoe from The Range is perfect for clearing weeds from the ground. Credit: The Range
win!
We're giving away a Segway-powered Navimow iSeries robotic lawnmower (worth £949) to one lucky reader.
It's packed with AI-powered features, including AI Assistant mapping capabilities, and is easy to set up with the Navimow app, ensuring a lush, green lawn every time.
To apply please fill out this form
For more information and how to get involved visit www.thesun.co.uk/SEGWAY
Alternatively, write to Sun SEGWAY competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP.
Please enter your name, age, email address and phone number. UK residents aged 18 or over only. Ends 15 June 2024 at 23:59 GMT.
Full terms and conditions here
Enter our competition to win a robotic lawnmower worth around £1,000. Credit: Navimow
learn!
learn!
Q. I have roses in my front garden and they all bloom at different times. I thought it was because some were planted in spring and some in autumn. Is there a way to synchronise them? Ray Snowden, Retford, Nottinghamshire.
A. Roses bloom from spring through fall. You can't have different types or cultivars blooming at the same time, but early, frequent and careful deadheading will keep them blooming all summer and reduce sporadic blooms. Cut off dead or damaged flower buds just above the first leaves. Then fertilize, fertilize and water.
Prune your roses to keep them blooming all summer long. Photo: Getty Images
