Country Life's 10 best gardening tips of 2020, from which nurseries to trust online to avoiding naff plant pots
Our gardening advice blogs are always enormously popular on the Country Life website — and with writers such as Alan Titchmarsh and Mark Diacono, it's hardly surprising.

Below, you'll find our top 10 gardening advice columns of the year — and if you notice that there are quite a few by Alan Titchmarsh, don't be surprised. The gardener, broadcaster, writer and national treasure was recently named Garden Columnist of the Year, not least for his contributions to Country Life.
Your month-by-month checklist of what to do in the garden and when in 2020
Credit: Alamy
The list came from Becky Crowley, formerly in charge of the cutting garden at Chatsworth.
The unwritten rules of choosing planters for your garden
Credit: Alamy
Our columnist Alan Titchmarsh raged against the tyrrany of the blue ceramic pot. '20 or 30 years ago, I did find blue ceramic planters rather attractive,' he wrote. 'Now, they are about as fashionable (and acceptable) as pastel-shaded paving in a mixture of dusky pinks and greens and yellows. They look, well, naff.'
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Why gardeners should keep buying plants online — and seven of the most trustworthy nurseries
Credit: Val Corbett/Country Life Picture Library
As lockdown took hold, our gardens editor Tiffany Daneff spoke out in praise of the garden centres that kept the nation supplied.
Why I had to cut down my decades-old hedge
Credit: Alamy
...and how it worked out better than Alan Titchmarsh could ever have hoped.
Everything you need to know about Foxgloves
Credit: Getty Images/EyeEm
Charles Quest-Ritson celebrated one of the most striking flowers of this time of summer, the hardy, prolific, beautiful and wonderfully useful foxglove.
The plants which will make you ignore the crazy rules of tastefulness and embrace a riot of colour
Credit: Alamy
Too many gardeners are afraid of colour,' wrote Alan Titchmarsh in June. 'Indeed, I confess to feeling guilty on occasion at my profligate use of it in the garden. We are conditioned, in this sophisticated world of ours, to revere tastefulness, and tastefulness most frequently involves restraint.'
How to grow peas: What to plant, when to plant it, and how quickly you’ll be dishing it up
Credit: Alamy
Mark Diacono shared his tips on peas – as well as anecdotes about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Thomas Jefferson and more.
The best garden designers in Britain
Credit: Paul Highnam/Country Life
A beautiful country house is as much about its surroundings as its bricks and mortar, something that the best garden designers in Britain all understand. Our revised and updated list feastured the finest of them all.
Growing your own Christmas tree: What to plant and where to plant it
Credit: Alamy
Alan Titchmarsh's tips on how to buy a tree that lasts for years, not just a few weeks.
The ‘underground treasures’ which are like a gardener’s game of chicken
Credit: Alamy
Growing plants specifically to harvest their roots takes faith, patience and nerve, explained Mark Diacono, but it's well worth the effort: the pay-off is spectacular.
Credit: Alamy
Alan Titchmarsh: How to master the fine art of pottering
As time opens up for all of us to spend more time in the garden, Alan Titchmarsh offers his tips
Alan Titchmarsh: The weeds I welcome with open arms
Our columnist Alan Titchmarsh used to spend hours ridding his garden of anything he hadn't planted himself. These days he
Credit: Alamy
Alan Titchmarsh: The best time of year to plant tulips
Alan Titchmars on planting tulips - and avoiding the grind of removing and storing bulbs every year.
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.
-
Name that mouse! And nine more to test you in our Quiz of the Day
Adorable rodents, a surprisingly affordable Surrey mansion and a classic Van Gogh find their place in Wednesday's quiz.
By Toby Keel Published
-
'The whiff of a McDonald’s Happy Meal has them pouring in': London, where the foxes are streets ahead
The urban fox is as much a part of the city as the red bus or St Paul's. Will this elusive animal outlast us all?
By Patrick Galbraith Published
-
Isabel Bannerman: The year’s first and most abundantly cheery, uplifting and undemanding of winter flowers
Cyclamen coum is one of the plants that lights up our gardens at this time of year.
By Isabel Bannerman Published
-
Country Life's top 10 gardens articles of 2024
From the gardens of A-listers and crazed plant hunters to tips on compost, we covered it all in 2024.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Alan Titchmarsh's garden: No insecticides, no herbicides, just beautiful flowers, lawns, a statue of Repton and a swing seat that's impossible to resist
It’s always fascinating to see what a high-profile gardening personality does with their own home. Tiffany Daneff visits Alan Titchmarsh’s Hampshire garden, to find a place of endless delights and charm. Photographs by Jonathan Buckley.
By Tiffany Daneff Published
-
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024: See all the gold medallists
We take a look at all the gold medallists from the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. All photographs by Andrew Sydenham for Country Life.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Alan Titchmarsh on Chelsea 2024: 'We need controversy to make us think... Just don’t expect me to regard slugs and snails as my friend'
Alan Titchmarsh looks ahead to the 'matchless spectacle' of the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show, the 'Paris catwalk of the British gardening scene.'
By Alan Titchmarsh Published
-
Mark Diacono: Chips, mash, roasted or dauphinoise — all better with your own potatoes
The versatile varieties of the potato make it a great crop to experiment with and, no matter what, nothing beats the taste of home grown
By Mark Diacono Published
-
George Harrison's Garden: How the Beatle and his wife turned a 'tangled jungle' into a magnificent garden
When George Harrison first saw the famous Topiary Garden at Friar Park in Oxfordshire, it was a tangled jungle of overgrown yews. The work he began has been continued by his wife, Olivia, and, now, the display is back to its full glory, finds Charles Quest-Ritson.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Published
-
Curious Questions: Why does Kew Gardens have a giant pagoda?
The Pagoda at Kew Gardens, designed by Sir William Chambers, is one of the most famous, yet most incongruous landmarks at one of the world's most famous gardens. So why is it there? Jack Watkins explains.
By Jack Watkins Published