Gardening can be a pleasure for 365 days of the year. Whatever the weather outdoors, a greenhouse is a year-round refuge where there’s always some activity to enjoy, whatever the season. But it’s not just the weather which can spoil our gardening activities. Growing plants involves not just our creative talents but also skill and […]
The British people are very sensitive to the idea of luxury and relaxation, something we experience little of in our domestic lives. Whilst we’re certainly an outdoors people, swimming pools aren’t common on the estates of London and Birmingham; despite every outdoor pool from Spain to Sardinia being overtaken by Brits in their socks […]
Most greenhouses are used to grow fruit, but usually it’s tomatoes. I can’t think of many greenhouse growers that don’t have a few tomato plants growing and fruiting over the summer months, but that’s not really the fruit that I mean. I’m talking about the fruit that you eat with ice cream, custard or cream […]
For sheer colour in the greenhouse there is little to compare with Coleus or Painted Nettles as they are so accurately described. Indeed these not only closely resemble Dead Nettles but are in fact closely related to them. Now many have been renamed Plectranthus or Solenostemon though these have not caught on. The commonest, Coleus […]
Now February is here, spring is a step closer, what a welcome thought that is, after last month’s snow which put a stop to doing anything in the garden! Plants like peppers, chillies and aubergines needing up to five months to mature, should be sown this month, to make sure that they have enough time […]
Allotments are a vital, living part of our gardening heritage – and when they are threatened, it’s time to draw a line.
Another year in the greenhouse calendar and the greenhouse owner, me included, starts to plan, plot and plant for the year ahead. If not in practice just yet, then in the mind’s eye at least. Despite the greenhouse being a haven from the prevailing weather, the very presence of inclement climes can restrict greenhouse activity […]
In the deep midwinter…you can still sow broad beans and peas. The great thing about the greenhouse is that it provides an opportunity for the most out-of-season seed sowing. It isn’t actually out of season, it just severely feels it. I sowed my broad beans the day before midwinter’s day. The day had been dull, […]
Where are the weather forecasters who suggested that this was a going to be a long, cold winter? Some of the borders are waterlogged, as the saturated clay soil can absorb no more rain. It certainly limits gardening activities, other than spiking the lawn with a garden fork in a futile attempt to improve the […]
A sun-soaked holiday taking in some of the world’s most beautiful gardens is a lovely idea, given the growing year we’ve had – but only until you join up your thinking. I have waited long enough. I had hoped, given time, that some celebrated gardener would, during some queasy moment on deck, look out across […]
You can grow cucumbers without a greenhouse but these are poor things by comparison with varieties grown under cover. Outdoor or ridge cucumbers are spiny and stumpy whilst indoor ones are smooth skinned, long and gently curved. Both originated long ago in India with the greenhouse strains selected and improved in China and Japan. The greenhouse […]
D-e –c-e-m-b-e- r say it slowly, because it has come round so quickly! Can’t believe it – is it my age? (no, cheeky!), probably because there has been so much to do in the garden and last month’s weather lurching from waterlogging to freezing then back, hasn’t helped at all. The most aggravating disruption has […]
