You may call it fluke, or happening-to-have-been-at-the-garden-centre-at-just-the-right-time, but I’m going to call it meticulous planning and green fingers. Yes, for the first time ever, I have a hippeastrum in flower for Christmas, and even some other forced bulbs in flower in the greenhouse too, just like you are meant to have. I’m never entirely sure […]
Look around at this time of year and you’d be forgiven for believing the world has gone mad. Adverts on the television extolling expensive high tech cameras, diamond clad watches and perfumes named after ‘celebrities’ I’ve never even heard of. Either I’m getting old fast, and maybe I am, or the essence of Christmas has […]
Is your purchase really necessary? Making gardening easy is one thing, but broad bean seedlings by post is surely a convenience too far.
More than just a greenhouse specimen this is a seasonal decoration, the Poinsettia with its striking colour is a lovely plant. But one seldom seen other than during the run up to Christmas. Few house plants are easier to keep alive, yet few others are harder to get to perform as well again. The Poinsettia, […]
Some plants dislike the damp that characterises our winter weather, particularly plants like cushion alpines, as any leaves left on them, causes them to rot. Pick off fallen leaves regularly and cover with a pane of glass, polycarbonate or Perspex as protection. Helleborus niger, the ‘Christmas Rose’ needs covering too, so raindrops don’t splash soil […]
There’s something magical about the cold stark winter light inside the greenhouse. It’s lit up with a skeletal beauty that shines and glows whenever the sun shines. The recent mild weather and winter sun has been enhanced by the greenhouse glass and inside it has really pushed they spring flowering bulbs into growth. The greenhouse […]
A little while ago I wrote here of having grown ginger, tumicini and turmeric roots in my glasshouse among other similarly exotic things, as an experiment. I bought the roots from a Thai super market, very much inspired by a Thai grower I met last year who told me that as the British weather didn’t […]
Christmas is getting closer by the day, so it’s time to start planning those presents so you don’t have the familiar panic on Christmas Eve having realised that you have forgotten to buy a gift (like I traditionally do). If there is someone in your family or circle of friends who is a keen gardener […]
Winter pruning of apple and pear trees is important so that they remain attractive, easy to manage, healthy and crop prolifically. You can prune anytime between leaf fall and bud burst, providing the weather is not cold and frosty; the aim is to create an open goblet shape. First, remove any shoots or branches that […]
As gardening is reinvented as just another form of retail therapy, will one man’s quest to get some dirt between our toes inspire us to shop less and garden more? The socks are off…
One in ten people are going home to warm and relaxing hot tubs in their own garden these days, and there is no reason you shouldn’t be one of those people. Hot tubs add a real touch of luxury to a home that is hard to achieve from anything else. However for most people in […]
You need a frost free greenhouse, warm conservatory or very sunny window sill for this gem, which is a guaranteed conversation piece. In fact this is not so much a gem as a god, for it is a venerated plant deity. Lophophora williamsii, mescal, peyote, peyote, and other variations, is the famous magic cactus worshipped […]
