I get a succession of visitors to Spring Cottage and it’s rather like revealing a glimpse of your soul. My last one was young and had olive skin, golden eyes and the sort of Italian accent women dream of. A garden designer, who actually knew his plants, he adored minimalist gardens with simple green schemes […]
With summer in mid flow there’s one garden pest that is taking the starring role, the wonderful wasp. While most people consider the wasp to be a huge pest, and it can be, in gardening terms the wasp is actually a very beneficial insect. It is a predator of many garden pests and will devour […]
Unless you’re growing plants for their ornamental seed heads or saving the seed for next year, ‘deadheading’ by removing spent flower heads goes a long way to extending the flowering season and stops those that self seed freely, like ‘Lady’s Mantle’ or ‘Love in a mist’ from becoming a weed. Hybrid Tea Roses were traditionally […]
Earth-friendly plant protection is a finely judged art, but with a little ingenuity you can thwart the pests while providing safe passage for pollinators. Now it begins. Yellow daggers wait poised and patient at the doors. Sharp claws wrench blood-curdling screeches from the glass. Sets of vicious, hazelnut-honed incisors pluck and twang at the wire […]
Okay, many greenhouse flowers are described as ‘exotic’, ‘stunning’, ‘impressive’, etcetera but the Glory Lily truly deserves every superlative. Except that is for ‘robust’ and ‘enduring’ as I must admit I have lost several. Still these are so exotic, stunning and impressive it is always well worth getting another. Glory lilies are often sold in […]
Created by Olivier Blanc & Charlotte Salt, Henri Le Worm aims to remind children where food comes from and the important role that nature plays in its production. Henri encourages children to engage with food and nature in a fun and playful way. In the App “Henri Le Worm – The Missing Cookbook,” children are […]
I’ve always been astounded by the power of plants. Whether it’s the inherent medicinal properties of unassuming garden stalwarts, like willow bark containing an aspirin precursor, or wild garlic used by bears to deter fleas, or how the smell of lavender relaxes the inhaler. I could go on and on and I probably will. Nature […]
Somehow it is June, and yet the greenhouse is still full. Everything should be out and yet there it sits, or at least, a good deal of it. I can quite easily blame this on the cold weather: I have visited a few gardens recently where the plants were planted out ‘on time’ and now […]
A famous quote by Coco Chanel, the French fashion designer, says that “you get the face you deserve when you’re fifty” – a milepost I passed sometime ago. Thankfully I’m one of life’s enthusiasts who can see the funny side of almost everything. I wake at dawn, wanting to tear into the day, and I’m […]
June is an ideal time to sow fast maturing vegetables if your sowing season has been disrupted by late frosts and cold weather this spring. Spring onions, early carrots and salads can be sown regularly until August, making the next sowing when the previous seedlings have germinated, so there is still plenty of time for […]
When neonicotinoid pesticides were developed back at the turn of the 21st century, did nobody realise what would happen to the wildlife that ingested them? ‘Right, Holly – give it a good whack!’ As the tremor shuddered along the oak’s boughs, green blobs fell to earth, and startled blue tits fled to higher branches. Some […]
This stunning cool greenhouse flower gives off colours no pictures can capture. In the flesh Sparaxis blooms have an unmatched day-glow intensity of brilliance. You really have to see these with the naked eye to appreciate their luminosity. They’re pretty anyway and make excellent cut flowers as they last well. Sparaxis tricolour is now the […]
