Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

Children’s Butterfly Colouring Competition Entries

This competition is now closed – thank you for all the wonderful entries. The winner was Lucy Underwood, and the runners-up were: Elena Grace Harrison, Ebony Scott, Jasmine Price, Katie Underwood and Saara Hussain.  As we have entries being submitted in a variety of ways for our current Butterfly Awareness Children’s Colouring Competition, we decided […]

Win tickets to Chelsea Flower Show 2016!

This competition is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered. The lucky winner was Jane Hatch of Worcester. Do you fancy attending the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show? Then you’re in luck! We have a pair of day tickets for Friday 27th May to give away, which would enable you to explore the most […]

Share your eco-gardening tips with us & win!

This competition is now closed. Thank you to all who entered. The winners were: Terry Wells, Jon Knight, Rebecca Evans, David Morris & Wendy Collard. We have five copies of John Walker’s latest book Digging Deep in the Garden: Book one (RRP ÂŁ4.99) to give away, plus five ÂŁ25 National Garden Gift Vouchers to be […]

PR: Companion Planting & One Very Special New Introduction

It’s going to be quite a year for the ladies at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with show gardens designed by Anne-Marie Powell, Jekka McVicar, Rosy Hardy and for Hartley Botanic’s 1st ever show garden it’s Catherine MacDonald who will be at the helm. Hartley Botanic MD Johnny Mobasher has long been a fan of […]

The Hartley Botanic guide to breeding butterflies

The life cycle of a butterfly can be seen as very simple compared with other forms of wildlife. For a butterfly, life starts with the caterpillar, continuing with the pupa stage and ending with the last stage – the actual butterfly. Depending on the species, breeding can be particularly hard, so it is important to know […]

How to help butterflies in your garden

For those that want to help the plight of the UK’s butterfly population, you can support many species of butterfly by encouraging them into your garden. If you want to do so, it’s important to know what kind of plants attract butterflies into certain areas. Adult butterflies will take and feed on nectar from a […]

Do pesticides affect butterflies?

There has been a long standing and increasingly one-sided debate over whether certain pesticides harm both butterfly and bee populations around the world. Since 1975, UK butterflies have faced long-term decline, with up to 70 per cent of species declining in occurrence, and 57 per cent declining in abundance. That said however, not all butterfly […]

Announcing our Children’s Butterfly Colouring Competition!

This competition has now closed. Thank you to all who entered. Entries can be viewed here. As part of our butterfly and wildlife awareness campaign, we are announcing the launch of our Butterfly colouring in competition! Starting on March 3, and ending at midnight on 3rd May 2016 , all you have to do to […]

The history of British garden fashion

Gardening has gone through plenty of fashions, fads and phases, from the very first humans to grow vegetables and edible herbs on their doorstep, instead of foraging for them, through to planting flowers and shrubs for their aesthetic appeal rather than any real practical purpose. Victorian gardens are key But it was the Victorians who […]

Share your eco-gardening tips with us & win!

We have five copies of John Walker’s latest book Digging Deep in the Garden: Book one (RRP ÂŁ4.99) to give away, plus five ÂŁ25 National Garden Gift Vouchers to be won in our easy-to-enter competition to find Britain’s most green and eco-friendly gardening tips.   Followers of John Walker’s ‘renewable gardening’ blog will know that his […]