With spring finally upon us, gardeners up and down the country will be relishing in the opportunity to get outdoors and start work on growing their favourite plants for the summer.
As such, this is exactly the time of year that green-fingered enthusiasts and gardening professionals alike will be sharing their top growing tips.
Garden guru Chris Beardshaw has come up with a particularly unusual suggestion that could be be worth giving some consideration.
He is due to speak on Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time on Friday (April 26th), when he will announce that a constant stream of music from Birmingham-based heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath worked wonders for some of his plants, the Press Association reports.
The broadcaster and gardening expert explains that using rock music as a nutrient can create larger flowers that are much more resistant to disease.
One of Mr Beardshaw's horticultural students wanted to write a dissertation based on the effects of music on plants, which is how the experiment came about.
"We set up four glasshouses with different sorts of music in to see what happened to the plants," the expert commented.
"We had one that was silent – that was a control house – and we had one that was played classical music, we had one that was played Cliff Richard and we had one that was played Black Sabbath," he continued.
Mr Beardshaw explained that classical music caused the plants to grow slightly shorter because of the soundwaves hitting them, but bloomed more than average.
However, the Sabbath plants were the shortest due to the booming nature of the music, but they grew the best flowers.
He added that the Cliff Richard greenhouse plants all died.
Those who wish to use more conventional tools to nurture their plants could invest in the MD Super Compact Garden Tiller, which will allow them to turn the soil and ensure it is in the best possible condition prior to planting.
