Autumn has come on fast this year, as if mocking our hopes for a morsel of late heat and sunlight to compensate for the shocking summer we’ve just endured (how many times have I heard people say ‘we are OWED an Indian summer…’? Nature, she don’t care…). Nights have turned quickly chill and I hear rumours of […]

At the end of an abysmal growing year, only one thing is certain: the familiar rhythms of gardening are gone for good.

Claytonia / Montia perfoliata, Cuban Spinach, Miner’s Lettuce Almost every greenhouse should have some of this low growing ground covering salad plant closely related to Purslane. Not as an ornamental feature necessarily but for it’s fantastic utility. You see this little grown annual, Claytonia perfoliata, Cuban spinach or Miner’s Lettuce hails from the central Americas […]

I have a strange weakness for searing pinks. Not in my wardrobe, necessarily (I’ve tried, believe me, but it’s a difficult look to pull off) but my garden is peppered with little shocks of the sort of pinks that would make Barbie blush. These are very much not little-girl pinks, there is nothing sweet or […]

September, is traditionally the month of lawn maintenance. If you have a small lawn, rake out the ‘thatch’ or dead grass and moss that has accumulated over the mowing season, using a wire rake, if your lawn is larger, hire a scarifier and share the it among several of your friends to save money or […]

It’s the summer holidays and a great time to get the kids interested in plants. You can’t force-feed anyone to love gardening like you do, but you can introduce children to a few of the joys to inspire them. Plants are perfect for this. The plant kingdom contains some amazing specimens that grow in extraordinary […]

I’ve been reading Joy Larkcom’s memoirs ‘Just Vegetating’, and they have been reminding me to get out into the greenhouse and keep on sowing, even though summer is at its height now. There can’t be many memoirs that send you hunting through your seed box and scuttling down to the end of the garden, but […]

No greenhouse fruit is sweeter or more luscious than a peach or nectarine plucked sun warmed and fully ripe. Indeed this should be a balloon full of nectar just waiting to burst on you. Now if you live in a warm sunny area you may just be able to win a crop of peaches outdoors […]

It’s time to take cover: after another grey, sodden summer, the future for serious food growers looks a lot brighter under glass or plastic.

A greenhouse is not strictly necessary for growing grapes as a few varieties can do quite well outdoors. But by far the tastiest, more luscious and gorgeous varieties do have to be grown under cover and indeed there are few more rewarding crops. Now a large greenhouse used to be needed as grapevines are very […]

I heard someone say recently: ‘I don’t wish to sound like a farmer, but the weather has been dreadful this year’! Whatever your profession, it has more than justified being our favourite topic of conversation. Cold, drought, heat, flooding and incessant rain have all affected our gardens, plants and morale! High rainfall has encouraged masses […]