Throughout the country, the variable weather continues. Several weeks of hot days and cold nights with a niggling, chilling wind have turned this into a long and beautiful spring for blossom yet low rainfall and cold nights are still affecting the gardener. Although it is May and garden centres are awash with beautiful bedding, resist […]
This month, with its short days, is a good time to check over gardening tools, replacing broken handles, sharpening blades and putting new kit on your Christmas wish list. Brush away any soil, clean off rust with wire wool, spray the surface with water repellent and treat wooden handles with linseed oil before hanging them […]
So come on March, are you coming in as a lion or lamb? With hemerocallis rapidly emerging, species tulips, Tulipa humilis already in flower and Sambucus ‘Black Lace’ coming slowly into bud, I am hoping for a lamb. Whatever March decides, it is going to take a while for the soil to warm, particularly on […]
The latter days of April were an unnerving experience for many gardeners. I watched rain soaked, fearful and powerless as heavy rain and hailstones battered my apple blossoms and chill winds blew, yet now that ‘weather’ has passed, I’m thankful that the garden seems remarkably intact. A quick check with the soil thermometer revealed that […]
You know those social media postings where a friend invites you to put up one favorite photo a day on some subject, without any label or caption? Just post a pretty picture. It’s harmless fun and you get to see some places and things you wouldn’t otherwise (all in the best possible taste, of course!). […]
It’s cold in Cold Aston, high up in The Cotswolds, and it’s quite possible to get four seasons all in one day throughout the year. And that’s a good reason for having a greenhouse for a sheet of glass between you and the elements can make the world of difference up here. My cold eyrie […]
It’s safe to say it hasn’t been a vintage year for tomatoes and I think mine have fared worse than most. A late start, a dull, cool summer, and a decision to leave my bubblewrap up as shading (it seemed like a masterstroke at the time) have left me with an abundance of ripening tomatoes, […]
In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]
Colour is such a personal thing and most of us have a favourite. Mine of course is orange and it’s the choice of an exuberant Leo lady. You see I was born on the hottest day of the year, in July, and my mother never let me forget it. I’m unusual I know, for orange […]
A glasshouse gem often seen on a kitchen window sill is the Hot-water plant with its long flowering display of pastel trumpet blooms. Related to Gloxinias several dozen species were introduced from Central America in the late 18C early 19C. These were tropical plants requiring hot house conditions and were soon hybridised to be more […]
In the last 30 years I’ve had two gardens and, although there were only 20 miles apart, they were as different as chalk and cheese, a bit like my children! My old garden in Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, famous for its beer, was a stone’s throw away from the church. The one-acre garden was on […]
You might try and grow Acidanthera without a greenhouse, but only when growing in one will they come into their full glory. These are very tall, rather elegant plants when in grown in tubs under cover. Outdoors however, they become stunted, beaten and can suffer badly from strong winds. More importantly, they also dislike cold […]
