Oaktree Home and Garden

I couldn’t believe what I witnessed last week, somebody cutting their front lawn in mid February. The following day it was covered in several centimeters of snow.
It has been a long winter and most gardeners are getting impatient to get outside and do something in the garden. Leave cutting the lawn until March when it [...]

Few of us have been unaffected by the recession, many are looking for ways to save the odd few pence where they can.
Food is often uppermost on our minds, not just eating it but the price of it and ultimately the taste of the cooked product.
Faced with the choice of shopping at the large supermarket [...]

If asked to draw up a list of gardener’s worst enemies, what would you expect to find heading the list? My bet would be slugs.
We have numerous methods of trying to rid our gardens of these ugly looking creatures that seem hell bent on devouring everything we have spent our precious time nurturing.
The quickest [...]

Many dog owners are unaware of the possible dangers certain ‘human’ foodstuffs contain when they allow their dog to eat ‘tit bits’
Most pet owners realise that ‘human’ chocolate is poisonous to dogs and sensibly buy dog chocolate, but how many dogs ‘hoover’ up the crumbs left over after our meal times, especially when children have [...]

Before I started selling Shepherd’s Whistles I tried one myself and judging by the many questions I have received asking how to get a sound from the whistle, discovered they are not that easy to get a sound out of at first.
Do not despair! It took me about an hour to finally get a [...]

One of the most satisfying aspects of gardening is growing your own plants, the question is do you grow from seed or buy already grown plug plants?
Most satisfying has to be sowing your own seed, the anticipation of that first crack in the compost as the new born seedling emerges is a wonderful feeling, but [...]

Most pets are susceptible to poisoning and even death from eating certain human foods, chocolate and dogs is the most common example.
However few people realise that if you are warming up a teflon coated pan on the cooker certain fumes are given off which, if your Budgie happens to be in the vicinity, will most [...]

The month of November is the best time to plant new rose bushes.
The ground is still quite warm and the soil is manageable, allowing the roots to get a good start before the ravages of Winter set in.
Don’t forget to prune the bushes back hard prior to planting and mix a planting medium of [...]

When putting a bird table or feeder in the garden, few people I suspect, ever give a thought to cleaning the feeders.
They stand or hang in place, are topped up with feed every so often and we sit back and watch the birds feed.
What a lot of people do not realise is the importance of [...]

How many times have we put food out for the birds only to see it stolen by a squirrel?
Worse still how many feeders have been vandalised or destroyed by this now common garden visitor?
There is a simple solution, provide the squirrel with its own food source, by placing a squirrel feeder in an area of [...]