News - Page 82

It’s one of the busiest times of the gardening year, so here’s a list of the jobs you can be getting on with! 

Vote now for your favourite tree and it could go forward to stand against trees throughout Europe for the coveted European Tree of the Year title. The shortlisted trees have been chosen for Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, and now it’s over to you as the public have the final say in which ones are crowned Tree of the Year for their nation.

Look out for apple festivals at gardens, orchards, village centres and National Trust properties across the country. The biggest of them all is the Apple Festival on October 13^th and 14^th at the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Kent, home to an astonishing 2,200 different varieties of apple – the largest collection in the world.

Harvest winter squash to store for winter, filling your shelves with rich, flavour-packed fruits to turn into hearty casseroles, soups, roasts and bakes right through the coldest months of the year.

Choose from traditional spray chrysanthemums, grown for cut flowers, or hardy varieties which flower their socks off through October and November, when everything else is retiring for winter.