Some like it hot – but unpredictable, climate change-fuelled spells of heat and humidity look set to play havoc with our under-cover crops. Hot, hot, hot – three heatwaves in a row, and we may not be done yet. This challenging trio has turned up the heat for gardeners everywhere. For those of us with […]
Moths are some of the most misunderstood mini-beasts in our gardens. These almost secret creatures are also pollinators and part of the food chain, Jean Vernon explains Gardeners don’t often notice moths in their gardens and that’s because many of them are active at night. Night flying moths are often (but not always) drab because […]
Midsummer’s here and the garden’s struggling, due to the hottest June since 1976. I remember 1976, with mixed feelings. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter Zoe, having had my oldest one in July 1975 in equally scorching weather. In fact, I have history with high temperatures, because my mother always said (through slightly gritted […]
Tucked into the corner of my cold greenhouse last winter, my pelargoniums looked at best unassuming, at worst half dead. But the greenhouse actually gave them exactly what they needed, keeping them alive for this precise moment in the year, for high summer, when they burst into glorious flower. I have always loved pelargoniums (often […]
Transplant Aubergines, peppers and chillies into pots one or two sizes larger filled with peat free multipurpose compost with added John Innes, as they grow. Repot when a good root system has developed but before they become pot bound and congested with roots, finally transplanting into 23 cm pots or two per growing bag to […]
Here’s a challenging greenhouse plant combining delightful perfume, charming almost fern like foliage, usefully catching flies, with another even more macabre habit. Dewy Pine, Drosophyllum lusitanicum, is unique, truly carnivorous, one of THE most effective fly catchers, yet unlike almost all others not a bog plant. Apparently this can also survive passing undergrowth fires, probably […]
