Tips of the Month/Recipes of the week

The festive season is nearly upon us! Here at Carpenter’s Nursery, we have the mince pies warming in the oven and plenty of mulled wine to keep us going until Christmas Eve. Because the Christmas holidays are just around the corner, we thought we would have a break from our usual growing and planting posts.
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Raspberries are a lovely summer fruit. You can sprinkle them on cereal, make jam, and use them in desserts. Raspberries are also very easy to grow, so if you like the idea of planting raspberry canes now, ready for a summer harvest, we have some tips for you. The Best Time to Plant Raspberry Canes
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For many gardeners, autumn is the best season. The palette is changing from the bright green and yellow hues of summer into fiery shades of red, gold, and brown. The mornings are colder, but Mr Sunshine still makes a regular appearance. Your garden is well on the way to recovery after the blistering heat of
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A Guide to Planting Autumn and Winter Bedding Plants Bedding plants add extra interest to a garden. They are often used to plug gaps between established shrubs, or to fill borders, pots, and hanging baskets. Most gardeners go the extra mile in summer, with acres of colourful bedding plants. This is only natural, as we
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Summer may be in full swing, but now is an excellent time to start planning your autumn garden. If you are not careful, once the summer bedding plants die off, your garden will be devoid of colour. The best way to solve this problem is to add a few autumn flowering perennials to the mix.
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Hanging baskets are a summer staple. Look around your neighbourhood and you’ll probably spot more than a few colourful hanging baskets adorning homes and businesses. Baskets of lush, scented flowers are wonderfully decorative, but if you don’t look after your hanging baskets, they won’t stay decorative for long. There is nothing worse than a half-dead
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Summer is just around the corner (allegedly!), so now is an excellent time to think about introducing some colourful bedding plants into your garden. We have a great selection of bedding plants, but if you need a bit of help choosing the right plants, here is a quick guide to the most popular plants. What
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For anyone who needs an “insta-garden”, herbaceous perennials are where it’s at. With some careful planning, you can fill your borders up with relatively inexpensive herbaceous perennials and have a beautiful display of colour in a few short months. The effect is not quite as instant as a tray full of pansies or petunias, but
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This is ideal for pulling together on a Monday morning when you have some leftover roast chicken from Sunday lunch. Spinach and rocket last for ages in the fridge so buy a bag and use for lots of meals. Cooked lentils from a pouch or tin can live in the cupboard for months so very
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Packs of cooked chicken are really expensive for the amount of chicken you get. You can buy organic, free-range chicken for the same price and there are no additives. Supermarket sandwiches such as coronation chicken are often quite unhealthy; this is a veg- and protein-packed alternative. Buy a loaf of Carpenter’s bread and cut it
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There are some wonderfully colourful flowers you can plant in borders, hanging baskets, and containers at this time of year, but none are as colourful as the humble primrose. We love primroses, so in case you are looking for some gardening inspiration this spring, here is a quick guide to primroses and how to care
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This crimson soup looks and tastes amazing. Even if you think you are not a fan of beetroot, give it a go; it’s delicious combined with lemon and spices. Beetroot is crammed with iron, calcium, folate, betaine, B vitamins and antioxidants, which combine to make it a great detoxer. A shorter cooking time means you’ll
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