Amateur Gardening – 28 February 2026 – Amateur Gardening (1)

Gifts are subject to availability and will be dispatched once the fi rst payment has cleared. Savings are based on the standard basic rate, which includes the cover price of £3.70. Off er ends 31st May 2026. Customer Service lines are open Mon – Fri , 8.30 am – 5.30 pm. Call now, and get delivery direct to your door shop.kelsey.co.uk/AMGGIFTP1 the QR code and go directly 01959 543 747 and quote AMGGIFTP1 Save up to 27% diff erent cultivars to choose from.

There are also several specialist fruit nurseries selling a wide range of diff erent types of pears, many of them unusual and/ or historical cultivars grown on rootstocks that limit the tree’s ultimate height. So, in theory, every home could have a heritage or unusual variety of pear tree growing in the garden or on a patio. Shining the spotlight on some of these wonderfully tasty old varieties could result in more people buying them and, in the process, reducing the danger of these heritage pear types being relegated to the history books.

So, I’d like to bang the drum for heritage varieties like ‘Beth’, bred in the 1930s and a reliably heavy cropper with a neat, compact habit. Sadly not grown commercially because growers think the fruits are too small, it’s ideal for anyone with an average-size garden. ou might be wondering why I’ve decided to feature a fruit tree that everybody knows. Well, despite being revered as the queen of fruits, (nothing compares to the deliciously sweet taste of a perfectly ripe pear), commercial pear production has dramatically declined and supermarkets still only stock less than a handful of diff erent types of pears even though, worldwide, there are over 3,000 Rosie Irving explains why we should help preserve these sadly vanishing older varieties The fruity perfection of heritage pears Rosie’s retro revival There’s a pear for every conceivable way of cooking and processing, whether that be poaching, pickling, baking, juicing, making perry or simply eating raw!

There’s a pear tree to fit every size of space and for every taste, says Rosie All images unless otherwise credited: Rosie Irving © Frank Matthews Trees © Shutterstock be stored during the winter months. The pear’s popularity continued into the 1500s when Harris, fruiterer to Henry VIII, introduced many dessert pears from France and the Low Countries.

Find out the best plants for feathered friends with Liz Zorab’s top 10 picks GROWING TOGETHER! Jamie Butterworth’s best planting combos OUTWIT WEEDS! Toby Buckland’s clever tips HOW TO HELP YOUR SOIL TO HEAL 28 FEBRUARY 2026 AMATEUR GARDENING 3 141 years of practical advice The world’s oldest gardening magazine 1884 2026 www.kelsey.co.uk A warm welcome A hearty welcome to the latest issue of AG magazine, brought to you by your favourite family of gardening experts with extra seeds, extra features and extra love from us for you, our dear readers.

We have made it through another winter, and what a soggy, tricky season it has been, but a new season now lies ahead. Hello spring, you beauty, how nice to see you again, thank goodness for that! Let’s not rush though, let’s stop and enjoy the clement moments, each and every one. To feel the gentle promise of warmth in the air, the excitement of seed sowing, and watching new life spring forth; the excitable chatter of garden birds, lighter evenings, hope and harvests ahead.

Slower gardening enables us to look, listen and learn from the here and now as well as the impact of the winter past. To watch the natural world unfurl and blossom and grow, bringing us with it as shoulders relax, the ground dries out and the warmth of the sun energises and transforms. Getting connected with this feels so good and has the potential to help us better understand our gardens and what needs to be done this season.

From working with the right plant, right place approach, which Nick Hamilton discusses on page 15, to gardening in a way that’s appropriate to your precious outside space and what it needs, which our new columnist Andrew Jackson writes about with poetic aplomb on page 60. With tips on dealing with weeds and getting ahead of their ‘game’ with Toby Buckland’s clever techniques, and Michael Perry’s advice for climate- resilient planting, this issue is packed full of great gardening ideas and inspiration for the fortnight ahead.

If you have ideas for features you would like us to include this year please do get in touch.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 5c8c459d50832f8f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 41,220,918 bytes (39.311 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 77
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 169.76 minutes
• Total Words: 33,953
• Total Characters: 210,074
• Average Words per Page: 440.95
• Average Characters per Page: 2728.23

Most Frequent Words

plants (161), garden (153), grow (109), soil (108), gardening (108), plant (88), year (82), spring (74), time (74), february (70), also (69), now (68), growing (65), amateur (64), years (61), seeds (59), new (59), like (59), winter (58), please (56), seed (52), early (50), compost (49), summer (49), well (47), it’s (47), back (47), owers (46), varieties (46), great (45), many (43), best (43), leaves (43), full (42), need (42), gardens (41), tree (41), good (40), one (39), trees (39), free (38), help (38), every (38), hardy (37), sweet (37), make (36), little (36), around (36), way (35), fruit (35), order (35), birds (34), use (34), season (33), sun (33), green (33), small (33), shutterstock (33), don’t (33), red (33), code (32), food (32), get (31), www (31), email (31), old (31), roots (31), geranium (31), sowing (30), late (30), water (30), easy (30), save (30), weeds (29), keep (29), work (29), last (29), white (29), autumn (29), pots (28), images (28), shade (28), pear (28), com (27), cut (27), home (27), tomatoes (27), blooms (26), known (26), want (26), ground (25), give (25), long (25), two (25), fruits (25), march (24), planting (24), much (24), variety (24), colour (24).

PDF Download