The security experts at Yale have thoughtfully offered the guidance below, on how best to secure your valuable garden contents, as thefts from grounds are becoming much more common:

Many of us don’t realise the high value of the items we leave in our garden, and the fact that they’re mainly left unsecured means they’re easy targets to thieves. To make it worse, home insurance policies often don’t cover thefts from gardens and outbuildings.

With expensive barbecues, garden furniture and kids’ toys often left unsecured in our gardens overnight, it makes sense to invest in affordable and easy to use security solutions that will keep them secure.

Padlocks are ideal for securing costly toys and play equipment, as well as smaller garden tools. Yale offers weatherproof padlocks, which are specifically designed to withstand the great British weather all year round, even in exposed locations such as by the sea.

You may want to consider extra protection for your more valuable items. An anchor used in conjunction with a padlock and cable would be ideal to secure any garden furniture such as tables, chairs and benches. Anchors are also great for securing high-value items in your shed, such as a lawnmower or jet wash.

You can also secure expensive items such as barbeques, which are often left out in the garden overnight, to a heavy fixture using a steel security cable and a padlock. Yale’s steel cable is two metres in length, but can be lengthened by connecting two or more cables together with padlocks.

The featured Yale Home and Garden Padlock Set, consists of 3 x 51mm weatherproof padlocks and 4 keys, now available from a selection of major retailers and locksmiths from only £14.99.

For more information on the full range of outdoor security products from Yale, please visit the website.

Why not treat your garden to a makeover, encouraged by the superb gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show?

For an immediate landscaped look with minimal effort, topiaried hedges are a quick way to significantly change your garden.

Jim Kirkwood, garden tools expert from Worx Power Tools, offers advice on how to introduce some of the newest topiary trends from Chelsea into your garden:

Pyramid Pruning:
Pyramid pruning gives texture to borders, as seen in Diarmuid Gavin’s Irish Sky garden; the sharp structured hedges contrast with the soft edges of meadow-planted shrubs.

To achieve this look at home, you will require:

• Hedge trimmer.

• Cordless handheld shears.

• Topiary wire mesh (optional).

“Begin trimming your hedge, starting at the base and working upwards, angling the trimmer to the desired gradient for your pyramid. You can either cut by eye or use a topiary wire mesh to guide you, taking a few steps back from time-to-time to ensure an even cut.

Once you’ve achieved a triangular outline you are happy with, use a pair of hand shears, such as the Worx Shrub/Shear (RRP £49.98, diy.com), to go over the hedge to define the shape. Look out for compact models with lithium-ion technology - this makes the tools super-lightweight so your arms won’t tire.

Box-Shearing:
For a formal effect, try box-shearing small leafy trees to create a neat and structured look, as seen in The B&Q Vertical Garden.

Tools for the job:

• Cordless hedge trimmer.

• Step ladder.

• Topiary wooden frame (optional).

“Begin by shaping the bottom of the tree with a cordless hedge trimmer, starting at the base of the trunk and cutting outward. Use a cordless model, like the trimmer in our picture,from Worx (RRP £94.98, B&Q), giving you more flexibility of movement and meaning there’s no danger of tripping on electric leads. Once you have an even box shape at the bottom, start clipping the sides and top. You could do this by eye or by using a wooden topiary frame as a template, to ensure the cube is cut uniformly.”

For further information about the Worx ranges of power tools, please visit the website.

Why not embrace the Grow-Your-Own lifestyle to celebrate British Tomato Week (15 – 22 May)?

Botanico the award winning Grow-Your-Own and eco product supplier, offers a great range of garden accessories that are ideal to help you grow an abundant crop of tomatoes.

Tomatoes are straightforward to grow and produce a multipurpose ingredient for salad soups, pizza and sauces.

They are an excellent source of Vitamins A, C and recent research has shown that the pigment lycopene, which makes most ripe tomatoes red, may be particularly active in protecting the body against heart disease and some forms of cancer.

Growing your own crop of tomatoes couldn’t be easier!

Grow bags are a handy way to produce a wide range of home grown fruit and vegetables including tomatoes:

• The Botanico Grow Bag Watering Pots, RRP £9.99 for a set of three,( in our picture)-are a quick and easy way of watering plants in growbags: Simply fill the reservoir and leave it to drip feed your plants, to ensure your tomato plants stay hydrated.

• Once the plants start to grow taller, the Grow Bag Cane Set – Quick Fit - RRP £6.99, is perfect for supporting the plants.

• Botanico’s Tomato Greenhouse - will generate better results on a sunny patio or balcony. It’s the perfect size for grow bags and eyelets in the top of the clear plastic cover, also permit bamboo canes to be put in for support and the full length, double zip door will help to increase ventilation.

• Also of interest, is the Let’s Grow.Tomatoes Upside Down Tomato Planter, - which is a growbag that can be hung above a patio – making it ideal for gardens where space is scarce -suitable for growing tomatoes, chilli and courgettes.

Botanico products are available through home and garden retailers in the UK.

For more information on the full range of Botanico products, please visit the website.

Help is at hand to ensure your Mother’s Day flowers look lovely long after Mothering Sunday.

Here are Top 10 Tips for caring for your Mother’s Day flowers courtesy of Interflora expert florist Natalie Stanyer:

1. Use a clean vase, adding fresh water mixed with Interflora flower food.
2. Always keep the fresh water level high to promote long-lasting flowers.
3. Remove 2cm from the bottom of the stems. Use a sharp knife or scissors to cut the stems at an angle to give the flowers a better chance of taking up water.
4. Avoid smashing or piercing stems as this can destroy their water vessels and prevent water absorption.
5. Be sure no leaves are floating in the water as this could promote the growth of bacteria, which can shorten the life of your flowers.
6. Every 3 days remove the flowers from the vase and re-cut the stems. Remove any dead or damaged blooms, or foliage that falls below the waterline.
7. Most flowers are best displayed away from direct sunlight, heating or cooling vents.

8. Place freshly cut flowers into lukewarm water rather than cold.

9. Avoid placing fresh flowers near ripening fruit, which releases tiny amounts of ethylene gas. This is a colourless and odourless gas so it’s almost impossible to detect, it causes flowers to wilt, petals to drop, leaf drop, leaf browning and can even stop flowers blooming.

10. For flowers that have been arranged in floral foam, it is best not to remove the stems from the foam - simply add water and flower food into the container every 1 - 2 days and remove blooms as they fade.

The Interflora Mother’s Day 2011 Collection will be available to order right up until the afternoon of Saturday 2nd April for delivery on Mother’s Day, Sunday 3rd

Pictured here is Interflora’s Rose And Anemony -hand tied. Priced at £34.99.

Interflora can also create individually designed floral gifts with its Designed to Order service. Simply advise on the style, colour and how much you would like to spend.

To place your Mother’s Day order visit the Interflora website.
Tel: (0844) 453 3555.

Pollination is as important to gardeners as it is to farmers and commercial growers, without it fruit and vegetables do not set and yields are reduced.

Bees are the most important pollinating insect and their decline in numbers has been widely reported recently. Historically the only answer for a gardener has been to plant bee friendly plants or flowers to help attract the many different bee species.

But that is about to change with the introduction of Harrod Horticultural’s exclusive new product range - Beepol. Beepol is set to be the bee’s knees - enabling gardeners to have their own working Bumble Bee colony!

Enjoy the benefits of Bumblebee pollination in your garden with the Beepol Garden Hive or the Beepol Bumblebee Garden Lodge:

• The Beepol Garden Hive - Exclusively available by mail order from Harrod Horticultural, contains a live colony of bumblebees housed and supplied in a maintenance free hive.

• The hive contains a queen bumblebee, workers and bee food and is populated with a native UK species of Bumblebee, all primed and ready to pollinate and therefore increase the yields of your garden and greenhouse fruit, vegetables and flowers for the summer!

• The Bumblebees are released by an easy to use trap door system. Bumblebees are more efficient pollinators than honeybees because they visit more flowers and carry heavier loads, are active at lower temperatures than honeybees and use “buzz pollination”, which helps pollinate a wider variety of plants. Priced at £64.95 + £4.95 P+P.

The Beepol Bumblebee Lodge - Also exclusively available from Harrod Horticultural, is based on traditional beehive designs and is made of cedar from FSC grown timber sources.
It comes complete with a Beepol Garden Hive housed inside.

• Bumblebee colonies do not continue through the winter and will die back in the late summer or autumn, when the new queen bumblebees have dispersed. The old hive can be taken out and a new one placed in the Beepol Bumblebee Lodge the following spring, ensuring you have your own Bumblebee population each year. Priced at £124.95 plus £4.95 P+P.

• The Bumblebee lodge comes with a voucher to send away for the bees when they are in season from mid March to the end of August.

Pre-order your Beepol Bumblebee Hives and Lodges from Harrod Horticultural now, to ensure you are one of the first to benefit from these industrious and fascinating pollinators!

Tel: (0845) 402 5300

For the garden enthusiast, planning your garden for the forthcoming season, or for many years to come, is one of the most interesting and rewarding parts of the gardening year.

Gifts from Handpicked have two beautiful garden planners, which would make perfect gifts for any budding gardeners:

The Practical Garden Planner is designed to grow with the garden, with a colourful loose-leaf section and storage pockets,

• It provides the ideal place to make notes as the seasons change and record those vital plans for the next year of successful gardening.

• Enthusiastic gardeners will love the seasonal reminders, the yearly planner and the value of having all the information they need together in one place.

My Garden Journal is a ring-bound book with 4 tabbed pocket dividers, 6 plastic pockets and 2 fold-out A3 gridded planning sheets.

• There is plenty of space for adding photos of your gardening space, and a fold-out year-to-view planner.

• Plus space for you to mark off your seasonal tasks and reminder pads for all-important notes.

• There is also a pocket to hold up to 12 business cards, labels for filing care tags and a deep zip-lock bag for any other important documentation.

Garden Planner, £14.95.
My Garden Journal, £9.95.

Gifts from handpicked is an established online retailer that arose out of passion for gorgeous gifts and homewares that were not available on the average high street! Their selection is handpicked ( hence the name! ) to be unique and special.

Visit the website to view the range of Handpicked gifts for gardeners.

Tel: (0845) 519 2408

Garden on a Roll® offers to bring an attractive garden border within the reach of every household. It is ideal for those with no gardening skills, no plant knowledge and no desire or time for gardening.

It eliminates the need to research suitable plants for your garden and as close to providing an instant garden as possible. After planting, it’s just a matter of watering, feeding and pruning.

Garden on a Roll enables homeowners and new home-builders, schools and business premises, to order ready planned, personally designed borders by the metre:

• The buyer provides brief details of style and type of garden, such as cottage, sunny or shady, dry or damp and type of soil etc, then a qualified plant expert will prepare the border ready for delivery.

• The pack comes complete with a biodegradable paper ground plan and pegs, plants/shrubs, a sachet of MiracleGro, a gardening book and an instructional DVD. All plant pots are numbered corresponding to a position on the plan - it is as easy as gardening by numbers!

• There is a comprehensive range of ten garden styles to suit personal choice, including an evergreen garden, mixed border, Mediterranean, dry border, low maintenance, sensory, cottage, wildlife, colour themed, a shady garden and a soft fruit and vegetable border.

• All can be supplied in borders upward of 60cm x 3m starting at £122.90 (including UK delivery and VAT).

TV gardening presenter and garden designer Antony Henn, inventor of this product said “Having been a garden designer and garden centre owner for over 20 years, I observed customers buying plants, with no understanding of whether they suit their garden situations.

Once at home they forget what the expert told them and often plant too closely and in the wrong positions.

Garden on a Roll eliminates these problems - it couldn’t be simpler, as anyone can plant one of our gardens following our simple step-by-step guide. It’s also a great way to get children involved in gardening at a very early age. The ‘Bees and Butterfly’ border is popular, as it attracts many forms of interesting insects and hoverflies.”

The plants are grown and dispatched by Antony and his team at The Dutch Nurseries at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire and Coggeshall, Essex, where trial borders are now on show.

For further details and to view the stimulating Garden On A Roll range of garden styles, please visit the website.

Tel: (01707) 276620.

Nature’s Feast, one of the UK’s leading wild bird care brands, are celebrating Nest Box Week 2011 by offering top tips for the nesting season and a chance to win a FREE Nature’s Feast Nest Box.

Nest Box Week 14th February 2011
Nest Box Week is launched on Valentine’s Day every year, with the aim of encouraging people to put up nest boxes to help protect wild birds, as many nesting sites are fast disappearing, due to gardens and woods diminishing.

By putting up a nest box in your garden, you can not only help with valuable conservation, but you will also have the pleasure of seeing wild birds from the comfort of your home.

What you can do to help your wild birds:

• Now’s the perfect time to put up a nest box in your garden in preparation for the nesting season.

• Nest boxes provide shelter and a place to breed and raise a brood for the spring and summer months. Place your nest box in a quiet, safe place away from any other bird boxes or tables, to help protect them against predators and keep them sheltered from the elements. Preferably position your nest box between two and five metres up.

• Nest boxes not only provide shelter for wild birds, but it is an activity that can involve the whole family. Eco-friendly, educational and an activity that won’t peck away at your pocket, families can enjoy setting up their nest boxes and watching their garden wildlife ’soar’.

Your chance to win a Nature’s Feast Nest Box.
In celebration of Nest Box Week, Nature’s Feast are offering you the chance to win a FREE Nest Box in time for the nesting season.
To enter the FREE prize draw simply email your details to:

competition@naturesfeast.co.uk

For further information on Nest Box Week 2011 please visit the Nature’s Feast website, where you will find plenty of helpful hints and tips, on how to provide the best in wild bird care for Nest box Week 2011 and all year round.

Tel: (0800) 093 9123

An expert garden designer has launched a new service offering gardeners the chance to create their very own award-winning borders.

Philippa Pearson, whose design and planting skills have been scrutinised by and rewarded with medals from Royal Horticultural Society judges over the last five years, is offering a tailor made, affordable border design service that takes into account your specific gardening conditions:

• An online form outlining the needs and requirements for the border is the basis for Philippa to create a unique hand drawn colour border design, using plants suited to the soil, site conditions and the garden owner’s personal design wishes.

• A shopping list is provided, specifying which plants to buy, and how many, plus a useful plant maintenance schedule, to help with caring for the border throughout the seasons is also part of the service.

• The specialist on-line garden store Crocus has teamed up with Philippa, to offer a 10% discount off plants for the new border. The choice of top garden designers, Crocus have grown and supplied plants for Philippa’s own award winning show gardens.

“I think all gardeners face times when they would appreciate some expert advice and knowledge,” explains Philippa.

“We all have parts of our gardens that don’t work well, or need a boost.
In some cases it is a flower border that needs updating, or it’s a tricky area that can be given a new lease of life with some thoughtful planting.

My border design service is a cost-effective way to treat you and your garden to some TLC.

For that reason it also makes a great Christmas, anniversary or birthday present.” Gift vouchers are also available for the service.

• Prices start from £180 for a border of up to 10m².

• Rising to £280 for borders of between 10m² and 20m².

• £400 for a border between 20m² and 30m².

• For border areas over 30m², and for whole garden designs, prices are quoted separately.

The Border Design service is easy to do - Just visit Philippa’s website and go to ‘Border Design By Post’.

For more information about Philippa Pearson, please visit her website.

To contact Philippa Pearson Tel: 01767 651253, or 07709 947284.

Last winters heavy snow fall saw millions of UK households unable to clear their paths and driveways for many days and even weeks.

Apart from the immense inconvenience caused, the snow was also directly responsible for a record number of falls and accidents.

Now, as meteorologists predict another winter in which high levels of snow are likely, the UK launch of an innovative and award-winning snow shovel, the ‘Sno Wovel’ comes as a timely godsend.

The Sno Wovel is a revolutionary snow shovel on a wheel that not only works three times faster than traditional shovelling, but with significantly less effort or risk of injury!

• Designed and manufactured in the US the Sno Wovel has already gained a string of awards, including TIME Magazine’s ‘Innovation of the Year Award’.

• It is now available for the first time in the UK from the exclusive distributor Source2010 Ltd (link below).

• The Sno Wovel is robustly built in mild steel and will clear all types of snow, from light and powdery to wet and heavy.

• Capable of clearing large areas of snow quickly, its use is not confined to just domestic households. In the US it has also proved the ideal snow clearing solution for schools, shopping centres, hospitals, car parks and other public areas.

• Hailed as the world’s safest snow shovel, the secret to the Sno Wovel’s success lies in the fact that it acts as a lever, using the wheel’s axis as a fulcrum.

• Its wheel size, handle height, overall length, and the double-width blade, are all perfectly proportioned to maximise the lever action and so capture the greatest amount of snow in one pass.

There are also a number of additional accessories available to ensure the most effective performance possible. These include, a hardwearing strip, which extends the life of the blade, a set of gravel wheels, which greatly assist when used on uneven surfaces and an ice chipper.

These accessories can be purchased separately, or are included as part of the full Sno Wovel kit for just £166 excl.VAT (+7.50 p/p) .

The Sno Wovel has been designed to be the fastest, easiest and safest way to clear snow. It requires no training and can be easily adjusted to suit any height.

To find out more about this award winning Sno Wovel and to see a video of it in action, please visit www.wovel.co.uk.

The Sno Wovel is priced at £125 excl. VAT (+£7-50 p/p) and can be ordered online directly from the distributors website.
www.thesource2010.co.uk

Tel:(01299) 271471