Simon on gardening, cameras and early starts

With half term over, together with a nasty sick bug that brought down the whole family, it’s nice to be back into the early morning routine! But having turned the clocks back, those early five o’clock starts do seem awfully dark and lonely.

It’s been nice to work with Kathy on a regular basis and have a bit of a catch up before The Morning Show starts. But I think my unshaven, un-showered, pre-show appearance has taken her aback a bit!

Richard Jackson: Advice for dealing with garden pests and diseases

I love my gardening but I don't get enough time to do it, so the plants in my garden have got to grow themselves and be resistant to pests and diseases.

Coping with plant diseases

Try and buy disease-resistant plants. For instance, older varieties of roses are susceptible to mildew and black spot, while new generations of roses are virtually entirely resistant to those diseases - so grow these instead!

Richard Jackson: Tips for sprucing up beds and borders

Hello! We're in mid-summer now and what with all the BBQs and garden parties, you want friends and family to see your garden at its beautiful best!

A great way to brighten up your garden is with vibrant and structured beds and borders. Follow my handy tips for sprucing them up:

• Replace old plants: Bite the bullet and get rid of any plants past their best.

• Neaten up borders: Cut back plants that have overgrown their space. Now is a safe time to cut back most plants because, with a bit of watering, they'll grow back very quickly.

• Add colour: It's amazing how much better borders will look with some carefully chosen vibrant plants. You can use pots and bedding plants.

Richard Jackson: My most embarrassing gardening moments

Hello! I hope you're having a chance to enjoy your summer gardens? If you want something to chuckle at while you're sat outside, my most embarrassing gardening moments should do the trick!

So many of my embarrassing moments have been caught on camera, from putting up hanging baskets that come crashing down, to demonstrating a plant's root system, only to discover it had no roots at all! At times like that you just have to say 'hey, that's life!' and get on with it.

QVC supports the Thrive Battersea Garden Project

Ever wondered what happens to all the plants at the Chelsea Flower Show? Well, QVC has donated plants from its medal-winning garden to the charity Thrive to celebrate the opening of Thrive's new Herb Garden in Battersea Park, London.

Sarah Price, designer of the QVC Garden, was there at the weekend to present the plants to the charity. Sarah has been helping the gardeners at Thrive create the new Herb garden, offering her expert knowledge in the process.

The Herb garden is part of the Thrive Battersea Garden Project, which is an ongoing scheme to improve the charity's gardening facilities within the park.

QVC has an ongoing relationship with Thrive; last year we donated plants from our Bejewelled Garden, which were planted in the 'Old English Garden' in Battersea Park. We also raised £5000 for the charity with a staff jewellery sale.

We hope everyone at Thrive enjoys some happy gardening!

Read more gardening blog entries.

Richard Jackson: Visiting QVC presenters' gardens

Hello there! Which of the QVC presenters do you think is a dab hand in the garden? Well, in addition to Anthony's garden, I've also visited the gardens of Kathy Tayler and Simon Biagi.

Anthony has this wonderfully neat and pristine riverside garden, while Kathy's garden is very natural, and Simon has an exciting tropical courtyard and a very attractive country garden that looks out onto beautiful countryside.

Each of them had different problems with their gardens. Simon was struggling with rabbits and clay soil, so I showed him how to sort that out. Kathy wanted this natural look to her garden and we talked about ways she could achieve that.

I also know that Charlie is a very keen on gardening because his dad is a gardener. It's fantastic that so many QVC presenters enjoy gardening, and wherever possible the presenters take plants home to try out in their gardens so that they can talk from experience.

The only question mark I have about any of the presenters' gardening abilities is Julian's - I think he could kill anything just by looking at it!

Richard

Read more gardening blog entries.

QVC wins a silver medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008

We're delighted that the QVC Garden has won a Silver Flora Medal at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

Created by the talented landscape design team of Sarah Price, Patrick Clarke and Patrick Wynniatt-Husey, the QVC Garden impressed judges with its naturalistic planting and sophisticated colour.

Sarah Price has enjoyed medal-success for the second year running, having also won silver for last year's QVC Bejewelled Garden.

The QVC Garden has had a great reaction from the public at Chelsea. You can vote for the QVC Garden as your favourite in the BBC RHS People's Award for Show Gardens.

Read more RHS Chelsea Flower Show blog entries.

Richard Jackson's gardening jobs for May

Hi! There's so much happening in the garden right now, and with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show taking place this week, in May you really see gardening at its best!

Here are some of the jobs I'd recommend doing now:

Patio plants

The key to creating a spectacular patio display is remembering to water, feed, and dead-head your bedding plants.

• Water plants regularly to allow for May's warmer temperatures.

• Feed plants regularly with a high potash fertiliser to boost the number of flowers.

• Dead-head your plants once the flowers have finished to stop them from going to seed.

Don't miss QVC at the Chelsea Flower Show

This weekend we're unveiling the QVC Garden at the world's most prestigious flower show - the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008.

Our talented design team of Sarah Price, Patrick Clarke and Patrick Wyniat-Husey have been rushed off their feet this past week as they work to get the QVC Garden ready in time.

With her trusty team-mates and band of helpers, Sarah is looking to go one better than last year's silver-medal winning Bejewelled Garden and go for gold!

Our gardening expert Richard Jackson and will be at Chelsea, keeping you up to date with latest news about the QVC Garden, as well as seeing which other designer gardens are creating a buzz and what plants are hot this year.

Tune in for RHS Chelsea Flower Show Week at 6pm every day from Sunday 18th to Friday 23rd May.

Read more gardening blog entries

Richard Jackson's composting tips

Hello! As it's Compost Awareness week, I've put together some tips for good composting. I'd encourage anyone to make their own compost as there's something really satisfying about turning kitchen and garden waste into magic for your plants - and it's free!

The ideal mix for your compost heap is:

• kitchen peelings like potato peel, apple cores, and carrot tops.

• grass clippings from the garden.

• fibrous materials like prunings, woody materials and scrunched-up paper.

Don't add cooked food to your compost heap as this will attract vermin.

Richard Jackson: Top plants for hanging baskets

Following my hanging baskets tips, I've put together a selection of plants to give your displays real impact.

Begonia Apricot Shades: This variety of trailing begonia is an absolute cracker! It delivers three times the number of flowers than normal begonias do, and the blooms are incredibly beautiful with shades of yellow, orange and gold. This plant is easy to grow because you don't have to dead-head the flowers.




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Richard Jackson: Tips for hanging baskets and window boxes

Hello again! I hope your gardens are coming along nicely and you had a chance to tick off some of those April gardening jobs.

Here's some advice I'd give to those of you trying to create stunning hanging baskets and window boxes.

1) Don't be mean with your plants! A mistake is to put too few plants into the boxes or baskets, because though they'll eventually create a good display, you're waiting for two or three months for the plants to fill in the gaps.

Tip: Almost overfill the box, basket or container with plants and not only will it look better faster, it will go on looking good for longer.

Richard Jackson: My 10th Anniversary at QVC and preparing for Chelsea

Hello everyone! Today I'm thrilled to be celebrating my 10th Anniversary at QVC. I've had so many fantastic times over the years and I'm just as excited about QVC gardening and meeting QVC customers now as I was 10 years ago!

I'm really looking forward to this year's Chelsea Flower Show. I was thrilled with last year's Bejewelled Garden and the wonderful response we received from the judges, the public, and the QVC viewers. And of course, it was great to win that silver medal.

This year we're really going for it with the QVC Garden, which is five times the size of the Bejewelled Garden. The QVC Garden looks incredible and we're in a prime spot this year, so the impact is going to be amazing. The designers have taken inspiration from the countryside and incorporated that into the garden very cleverly.

Richard Jackson's gardening advice for April

Hello! It's my favourite time of the year to be in the garden. With the weather warming up and the light levels getting better, you can be doing tonnes outside.

From mid to late April there's so much to do, you have to prioritise.

Plug plants: Now's the time to be potting them on and planting them in larger pots.

1. The most important thing is to 'pinch' them out if they're getting a bit scraggly. This encourages them to push out and develop a stronger root system and produce more flowers.

2. Feed them. I use liquid tomato food or my own Flower Power Feed. This encourages the plants to get into flowering mode and bloom earlier.

3. Towards the end of April to early May, you can begin moving potted-on plug plants outside during the day, and bring them inside at night. This 'hardens' them up. Once you permanently leave them outside, they're tough enough to deal with the variable British weather.

Spring gardening advice from Sarah Price, QVC's Chelsea Flower Show designer

Hello! Hope you're enjoying the extra daylight and (with any luck) the better weather. The longer days mean it's the perfect time to get working on your gardens. 

I'm spending all my time preparing for the Chelsea Flower Show. There's less than a month to go until we can start working on-site at Chelsea, and the pressure is starting to mount.

I've been busy visiting nurseries and seeing how the plants and trees for the QVC Garden are coming along.

It will be some weeks before the plants begin to bloom. Meanwhile we've been hardening the plants off, which involves moving them temporarily from their warm polytunnel homes to outside. This way they gradually get used to the cooler temperatures, but the unpredictable weather we've had this spring has made this tricky!

Richard Jackson visits Anthony Heywood's garden (part 2)

The second instalment of garden expert Richard Jackson's visit to Anthony Heywood's riverside garden, where Richard gets to grips with Anthony's trimming troubles...

Get your hands on the Bosch trimmer featured in this video.

Missed the first part of this? See Richard Jackson visits Anthony Heywood's garden (part 1).

Richard Jackson visits Anthony Heywood's garden (part 1)

Anthony Heywood introduces green-fingered expert Richard Jackson to his beautiful riverside garden and explains his gardening troubles...

See Richard Jackson visits Anthony Heywood's garden (part 2) to see the solution to Anthony's garden woes.

Gardening advice from QVC's Chelsea Flower Show designer

Hi, Sarah here again. There have been many developments since my last posting. I've joined up with two of my colleagues - Patrick Clarke and Patrick Wynniatt-Husey - to form a new team for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Working together as a team is not only great fun but also really constructive. We complement one another really well, and with our combined skills and experience we can achieve great results.

As part of the design process for the QVC Garden, I've been brainstorming lots of ideas with my new team-mates.

Some of these ideas I think you'll find really useful, including tips on gardening inspiration and the season's latest trends!

Spring gardening advice from Sarah Price, QVC's Chelsea Flower Show designer

Hi, with spring just around the corner, here are a few tips to get your garden ready to bloom...

Move shrubs

For shrubs that are growing in the wrong place or that have outgrown their position, I recommend moving them now. Here's my step-by-step guide:

1. Prepare the soil in the new planting hole by adding in lots of compost

2. Try and lift the established shrub with as large a rootball as possible

3. Re-planted the shrub, don't forget to firm-in the soil around the plant

4. Make sure that it is well watered

QVC have a garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2008!

QVC have been selected to create a garden for Chelsea Flower Show for the second year running. Last year's QVC Bejewelled Garden won a coveted Silver Award. Our garden designer, Sarah Price, wrote a blog about last year's garden and she's promised to keep us up to date with her preparations this year too - watch this space.