Many gardeners, stuck inside, are itchy to go shopping. Emails and catalogs arrive daily, the weather’s still too bad to do much outdoors, and after the pandemic, you have online ordering developed to a fine art. You’re ordering plants anyway, so why not add a tool or two? It’s worthwhile, though, to go shopping in […]
The cold start to the year has left the greenhouse relatively empty of new inhabitants, as it should be, really, at this time of year. It has been very chilly, a proper winter, and there has even been snow on the roof of the greenhouse some days, but this is all to the good for […]
It’s the most exciting time of all in the garden, because everything’s responding to longer days and warmer temperatures. My Hartley greenhouse is a hive of activity because it’s full of seeds about to spring into life. It may be unheated, but it warms up brilliantly well on spring-like days and that encourages earlier germination. […]
As I was moving an orange tree in my greenhouse a few weeks ago, whiteflies started flying around my head. These are one of the most common greenhouse insect pests. How do you know if you have them? Just hang a yellow sticky trap near one of your larger plants and then shake the plant. […]
Jean Vernon offers her seasonal thoughts on ways to use the garden to survive the ongoing pandemic The garden was a saviour to so many of us last year. It wasn’t just the place to connect with nature, for many of us it was a place to escape from the house, move away from the […]
It might be cold right now, but this is the time of year when gardening fever hits. You want to plant something—NOW. And what better way to satisfy your cravings than to grow something to eat, protected from inclement temperatures and rough weather? Niki Jabbour knows all about that. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, […]
It’s a real joy to have a greenhouse where you can potter when the rain, snow and waterlogged ground make gardening outdoors impossible. Thankfully, there’s plenty to keep you busy in there and hey, it’s not long now until spring. If you lifted and stored your dahlias over winter, encourage them back into growth by […]
The other day I had the rare privilege of being the first human to hike down a woodland trail after a snowfall. It was just me and (to judge by the tracks) foxes, raccoons, deer, rabbits, squirrels, voles, wild turkeys and coyotes. Then I noticed something else against the pristine white: a scattering of seeds, […]
Our climate is getting inexorably wetter, but as gardeners we need to learn to think more like our plants. It’s time to start dancing in the rain. When my gardening dreams and I landed here 18 years ago, on what was a bracken-riddled bank, I had no inkling that I was about to embark on […]
I’m actually writing this on January 19th, a significant day in the gardening calendar. It’s the day when our part of the earth begins to warm up again. Scientists tell us that from that day onwards the ground starts to get warmer, due to the sun getting closer to our part of the Northern hemisphere. […]
In a few weeks, many greenhouse owners will be buying and planting tomato seeds, and as always, they will be confronted with a bewildering array of varieties to choose from. They can buy hybrid or heirloom tomatoes, determinate or indeterminate ones, and these come in a vast array of sizes, colors, designated uses, and methods […]
I don’t know about you, but recently I have been feeling befuddled, not knowing what to turn to next to keep from sinking into the well of ennui. I sure do miss knocking around with friends and the freedom for a bit of rack-slapping-at-will, because you never know what sort of bargains you’ll find unless […]
