Homes and Gardens

he old saying ‘from small acorns mighty oaks will grow’ might one day describe Southsea Green.    

  Jobs for the coming weekend

Brian Kidd opens his inbox and solves your problems.

It’s good to know there is a great return to growing vegetables and two letters inspired my thoughts this week. One was from Janice at Fareham who has not had much luck with the swede, beetroot or cabbage family. The other was from Chris at Bedhampton who would like ideas for making vegetables look attractive in his flower garden?

Once every three years, villagers in Westbourne invite thousands of people to wander around their gardens.

Allotment Buddies is an exciting new project from Food Portsmouth,an independent organisation that aims to support, develop and promote a fair and positive, sustainable food culture across Portsmouth and Southsea.  

When you know what you want from a house, how glorious it must be to take charge of its inception and creation.

  There's plenty to do here...

What about growing lovely sweet peas this summer? People are always talking about a lack of fragrance in the garden, well here's a plant which will grow well in almost any garden provided they can get up into the sunshine.

As a novice gardener myself and trying to encourage young people to get outside and embrace growing and learning, the Catch22 ‘bed’ plot has been a haphazard, yet brilliant experiment in the past two years.

Gloxinias are beautiful plants and look wonderful in a greenhouse during the summer as they normally come into flower during late July and remain in bloom until the cold weather arrives in autumn.

Our popular gardening expert delves into his inbox.

Southsea Green is a beloved green space where we grow local food and flowers. It''s a community garden, transformed from long-forgotten wasteland.

If you love Busy Lizzies and would like to try to grow them from seed, then this is just about the right time to sow them. So why not devote part of your Easter weekend to this absorbing job? Why is this the right time? Because, as you might have noticed already, there is a lot more energy in the sun now and it may be easier to hit the temperature required for their germination.

SNOW at the beginning of March may have delayed the Wessex Orchid Society’s show, but everyone agreed it was worth the wait.

Works of art come in many forms – paintings, sculptures, jewellery. 

Our gardening expert with advice and things to be getting on with as the new gardening season kicks off.

Things are starting to grow at last and herbaceous perennial plants such as golden rod, phlox and hostas are emerging from the soil.