Raymond Blanc OBE is proud to ‘open’ the Hartley Botanic Westminster Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show Stand TR1 On Monday 19 May, Raymond Blanc OBE will join his friends from Hartley Botanic to officially open their garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, Stand TR1. The highlight of the garden will be a showcase of […]
TV presenter David Domoney yesterday presented Cranberry Academy, Alsager with a stunning Hartley Botanic greenhouse worth £4,000 for its fantastic effort during the fourth annual national ‘Get Your Grown-ups Growing’ initiative hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Campaign for School Gardening. The Cheshire-based academy devoted an entire week to a Get Your Grown-ups Growing […]
It is the first time for years I have not been working away from home at this time of year or sneaking time to ‘garden in the gaps’ between work commitments and I’m loving it! Just great to enjoy the garden, and take my time – which is what gardening is all about! By the […]
The media buzz about bee conservation is having a real effect, but virtual gardening only goes so far – and there are more immediate ways of boosting bee populations. During the last year I seem to have spent a lot of time tapping my computer keyboard to help improve the lot of bees, large and […]
With a greenhouse or conservatory it is easy to enjoy fresh flowers every day of the year. However this can mean keeping a large number of very different plants as each will only bloom over a limited period. Very few plants can be persuaded into flower every week of the year and even fewer in […]
The greenhouse is filling up alarmingly, and this is before I’ve started on the potting on. Sown seeds are a small, highly folded piece of paper and potting on is the unfolding of it. The volume doubles, then doubles again, then again. Pots balance upon pots, everything is crammed in and teetering, fighting for space, […]
The greenhouse is bursting with germinating seeds, flourishing seedlings and rooting cuttings. The aroma of spring is saturating every breathful of air and it smells fantastic. Rich, warm and vibrant, spiced with plenty of freshly made oxygen from the thriving plants. Spring is such an animated season in the greenhouse. Every new plant emerging from […]
Even mild winters seem interminably long, so it is great when the first flowers and fresh new shoots appear. For some reason it reminds me of the nonsense rhyme which starts ‘Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies iz’..? When the soil warms up in early spring it is time […]
Instead of giving any more time to the myths about sowing in peat-free composts, put them to the test. You’ll find they do the job as well as peat – without the ecological price-tag. Of all the myths that abound in gardening, the most pernicious are surely those that circle our inevitable but painfully slow […]
Until recently greenhouse pests were fumigated with smoke from smouldering tobacco. For nicotine kills most creatures in addition to long term damage when smoked by us foolish humans. Tobacco is now considered a rather dirty habit but the plants themselves should not be frowned upon. In the flower garden most of us probably know the […]
Since I last wrote here my seed sowing has switched from smugly-ahead-of-time to oh-my-what-have-I-been-doing-with-my-time. Outdoors was so cold and slow back then, all of four weeks ago, and sowing time seemed endless. What happened? Now it’s all green shoots, pink blossom and blue skies and I have moved from leisured to frenzied. I am getting […]
Hartley BeanFeast March 2014 It’s no secret that I’m addicted to bees. I just can’t help talking about nature’s little heroes, or more accurately heroines, at every opportunity. Last week I met a small boy who started asking me very grown-up questions about bees and it made me realise how much bees are taken for […]
