These are amongst the most elegant of all greenhouse flowers. Almost perfectly designed for cutting Japanese roses will keep fresh at least a fortnight even three weeks. Indeed if these were just that bit easier to start off we all would have them. I must admit they’re a little on the awkward side with a […]

The insidious effects of neonic insecticides are leaving bees and other beneficial insects with no safe place to go. There’s still hope of rescue – but it will only happen with our help.  Any day now I’ll hear a low buzz and a dull bumping on the glass out in my greenhouse. That’s my cue […]

I wish I could get excited about seed sowing, like you do. When all the proper gardeners start leaping around like little spring lambs, I turn sulky and reluctant. Maybe I’ve been secretly enjoying this long, cold winter because it has put off the time when I have to go out to the greenhouse and […]

I’ve always been a bit of a fan of weird and wonderful food plants. I love to forage in the woodland and hedgerows for ingredients to transform our diet and am fascinated by the food plants still used by native civilisations. Quinoa, amaranth, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, chillies and many more valuable crops were brought to […]

It’s the beginning of March and according to Peter Gibbs, BBC weatherman and gardening enthusiast, the cold, grey weather will be with us for a little while. There is a great temptation to rush out and start seed sowing at the first signs of sunshine, which will surely come. After a cold wet winter, it […]