This depends on so many different factors. We might consider concentration, range or sheer quantity of vitamins produced. Or minerals, antioxidants, antho-cyanins each contains and so on. Any contender will be lesser value if the crop comes all at once and has difficult storage or processing, ideally it’s continuous year round. And of course it […]

In the early decades of the 21st century, flooding was still an extreme event. Now it’s the ‘new normal’ – and we’re watching our plots go under.

It may be drear outside at the moment, but the great thing about gardening is that you’re always looking forward. So it’s already summer in my head for I have just received some new dahlia tubers in the post. They may look like shrivelled brown things now, packed in plastic bags full of flyaway vermiculite, […]

If you have a grapevine in your greenhouse this is the perfect moment to give it its annual prune, and I have been attacking my absolute beast of a vine. Grape vines make wonderful greenhouse plants in one way: the warmth and shelter makes for an environment much closer to the climates they like to […]

Recent weather has turned the seasons so far around; I just wonder what the new year will bring. Here in Hertfordshire banks of daffodils were flowering just before the New Year, Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ burst suddenly into full bloom and in the garden I lifted tender Canna’s for storage in the greenhouse between Christmas […]

More a house than a glasshouse plant the Snake plant, Sanseviera trifasciata, is actually a very useful specimen in either place. Many plants are described as bomb-proof, the Snake plant is as close as you can get. Drought and shade seem to leave it untouched, cold is no problem though a real freeze will be. […]

I am starting to choose seeds for next year’s greenhouse growing and one of the crops I am most keen to try again is melon. This is a crop I have only recently started growing, having in the past not entirely believed it possible. In a former, more carefree life I backpacked around Australia and […]

I’ll be celebrating 12 gardening days this Christmas, but not all in one go – and not in the usual way. I’m breaking with seasonal tradition: instead of counting down the 12 days of Christmas, I’m planning to spread a dozen ‘green’ days out across the coming winter months. My 12 days are more to […]

Think outside the gift box when it comes to Christmas presents, says Jean Vernon. It’s that time of year when you can’t sit and watch the telly without adverts for extravagant gifts, ridiculously expensive toys, gadgets and perfume; all in the name of a religious festival. Somehow that just doesn’t compute for me. Even more […]

Being a writer does sometimes feel as though you’re under house arrest and I know I’m not alone. A rare lunch in Oxford, with a dozen or so other writers, was summed up by one as “stepping out of our usual writer’s isolation for a couple of hours.” Ours though is nothing as opposed to […]

Open the vents in your greenhouse on sunny December days, shutting them before temperatures drop early in the afternoon to retain the heat. Good air circulation is essential but chilling draughts should be avoided, so don’t leave the door open or open the vents too far. It is a matter of getting it just right! […]