GN turns 60! We look back at some of our highlights
The first-ever GN went on sale this week in 1958 – here are some of our highlights
The Everly Brothers were Number One in the charts with All I Have To Do Is Dream, the average house price was £2,049 and British gardeners rejoiced at the launch of a gardening newspaper – Garden News (we didn’t become a magazine until 2013).
The first issue went on sale on July 4, 1958, priced at fourpence, and it immediately became a great success. Back then, less than 10 years after the end of rationing, the role of the UK’s gardens was still mainly to grow food, but it’s clear that even then GN readers were adept at growing anything!
We’re proud to carry on the great tradition of GN, and thoroughly enjoyed trawling through the treasure trove of our archives to find some great features from the last 60 years.
1958
Brand new, and with an exclusive on famous rose expert Bertram Park, GN hit the streets! Plant of the week... the cabbage!
1971
The legendary Percy Thrower wrote for GN for several years – including this feature on dieramas (above).
1986
The esteemed Geoff Hamilton was ahead of his time in 1986, calling on gardeners to eschew pesticides and help wildlife.
1994
Geoff Amos, ‘Britain’s most genial TV gardener’, was keen for more youngsters to take up gardening back in 1994.
2002
The brilliant Carol Klein has been writing for GN for nearly 30 years ago – here waxing lyrical about summer bulbs. Read her column this week on page 30!
2011
Better harvests all round! Terry Walton, doyen of the nation’s veg plots, began his weekly column in GN seven years ago.