The magic of seeds never fails to bring a smile to my face. What could be more exciting and wonderful than watching a dried-up speck start to sprout and root and begin its life as a plant? It’s a process I can watch and enjoy again and again. It’s simple, it’s nature at her very […]
An excellent talking point for your greenhouse or conservatory is the delightfully, well accurately, named Scurvy grass, Cochlearia officinalis. Here the clue definitely lies in the names. The spoon shaped (Cochlear in Greek) leaves deliver massive doses of Vitamin C and really can cure Scurvy (a skin disease caused by the lack of this Vitamin). […]
HARTLEY BOTANIC RECOGNISED WITH A QUEEN’S AWARD FOR ENTERPRISE AS THEIR ENGLISH, HANDMADE GLASSHOUSES BOOM OVERSEAS PRESENTED APRIL 2023 BY THE LORD LIEUTENANT FOR GREATER MANCHESTER  THE HERITAGE BUSINESS IS A WINNER IN THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE CATEGORY, AFTER INCREASING ITS GLOBAL SALES BY 144 PERCENT IN THREE YEARS & THE US BECOMES ITS STRONGEST MARKET […]
Sow broad beans, spinach, cabbage, calabrese, kohlrabi, cauliflower, lettuce, peas for pods and shoots, onions, salad onions, turnip, radish, beetroot, leeks, leaf beat and chard under glass in pots or modules for later transplanting outdoors. Sow bunching onions, beetroot and round rooted carrots in pots for later transplanting outdoors. From the middle of the month […]
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What can be better than going out to your garden, picking a few sun-warmed tomatoes and enjoying them for lunch or dinner? Tomatoes are the most popular garden plant grown in America, but do you know your determinate from your indeterminate? Your heirloom from your hybrid? Or why some tomatoes have VF, A, FF, or […]
Are you impatient for the phase-out of peat, or anxious about its implications for your garden and greenhouse? With the right advice, we can all look forward to a peat-free future. Peat-based compost – along with the ecological destruction that follows in its wake – is in the departure lounge. There is no turning back. […]
Let’s say you’ve got your greenhouse. Now, let’s figure out the furnishings. Much depends on how you plan to use it. Is this the space where you will start your early vegetables? Is it going to be home to happy houseplants and your tender tropicals in the winter? Is it a light and bright extension […]
This is not about saving electricity, or about embracing solar power to illuminate our lives, but instead it about appreciating and enjoying darkness. Luxuriating in shadows, letting the stars and the moon be the radiance that punctures darkness ever so quietly. Especially in the greenhouse and the garden. I’ve been reading and absorbing a small […]
I used to live in a wonderful village in Oxfordshire, Hook Norton. One of my great friends, gone and sadly missed, was a farmer who was born and bred there. At this time of year David used to say, “spring is just around the corner Val. The trouble is it’s a bl***y long corner.” This […]
A few years ago I moved my dwarf nectarine into the greenhouse, and it is at this moment in the year that I am glad I did. My nectarine is a dwarf variety, and has lived in a pot out of doors for many years, and so I am lucky that it is moveable. It […]
If you are worried about the lack of fresh food in the shops, it’s time to rethink your take on salads and look a bit closer at what is growing in and around your garden and greenhouse. Beat the fresh veg shortage by using some alternative salad ingredients instead. I’ve never been a great fan […]
