Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

New year revolutions

If reason and persuasion don’t work, we need to start hitting the less ethical elements of the gardening industry where it hurts: below the profit margin. Yes, you read that right: it’s time for us to start revolting. Unless you subscribe to the against-the-clock, TV makeover, artificial, fashion-fickle version of gardening, you’ll know that it’s […]

Lobster Claws and Flaming Swords catch your attention

Amongst very showy greenhouse specimens difficult to name out of flower yet most obvious in bloom are Flaming Sword, Lobster Claws and Painted Feather. These names accurately describe the fantastical red and yellow waxy flower spikes of massed bracts. Blooms once seen never forgotten, almost surreal, and so resembling plastic that people feel it necessary […]

Magical moments in the January greenhouse

Nurturing precious plants is just one of the delights of the winter greenhouse. But when you are intent on the three R’s, (reducing, reusing and recycling), heating the greenhouse is just not an option. You wouldn’t have a single glazed room in your house, exposed on all sides to the elements, with a concrete floor […]