Gardeners are often blamed for wasting water, but this I feel is completely wrong. Most gardeners revere this precious resource and respond to plants by watering only when completely necessary. Real gardeners understand that plants need to grow strong roots towards the water table and be less dependent on supplementary watering. It is perhaps our […]
As predictions of ‘a worse drought than 1976’ hit the headlines, here are some water saving tips for your garden. Seven water companies in southern and eastern England – Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, Anglia Water, Sutton and East Surrey, Veolia Central and Veolia South East – will soon be starting hosepipe bans; […]
Some greenhouse plants are appreciated more for their luxuriant foliage than for their flowers or food appeal. Taro, Colocasia antiquorum, is a good example and ideal for gracing a frost free conservatory or bay window. Luxuriant dark green, rhubarb sized, broad arrow shaped, leaves similar to those of an Arum lily, held on stems a […]
I’ve been doing plenty of very sensible and grown-up sowing recently in my mini greenhouse – lettuce, beetroot, spinach and more, all to be planted out at the allotment as soon as they are big and ugly enough – but I have also been having a little fun with pea shoots. I ran my first […]
For those of us who grow tomatoes in a greenhouse and outside in the garden, there is no competition – the greenhouse wins every time! The patio is fine for growing bush varieties in large pots and hanging baskets or tall varieties up against a wall in grow bags, but to guarantee a successful crop […]
The clean, uncluttered lines of Hartley Botanics’ new Horizon glasshouse – unveiled on stand MA13 at the 2012 RHS Chelsea Flower Show (May 22-26) – reflect a new age of modernism in the domestic landscape, giving garden owners the option to project contemporary house styles and increasingly popular rectilinear garden designs into their outdoor structures. […]
High-tech sunshine harvesting is all very well if you can afford it, but there’s an easier and more earth-friendly way of turning sunlight into energy right outside your back door.
For a long time I’ve been fascinated about the effect of the moon on plant growth. I’m no expert and there are plenty of places to learn more, but the pulling power of the moon on the tides and lifecycle of the planet must in some way affect not just plant growth but life in […]
The end of last month took us from -15 C to 15C in a matter of two weeks in parts of Britain, some gardeners I spoke to expressed surprise; others, wore that knowing, well worn look based on years of experience. I clearly remember when I was a teenager (yes, that long ago!) planting trees […]
The trouble with starting your tomatoes and peppers as extravagantly early as I have this year (yep, already sprouted and growing away. Keep up, keep up…) is that the awkward patch – those ‘too big for the windowsill, too cold to go out to the greenhouse’ weeks – will be worse, will come sooner, and […]
Some of the greenhouses’ most delightful but seldom known gems are the Zaluzianskya, Night Phloxes. These are rather misfortunately named so they now appear almost last in any seed or plant list. By then one’s attention may have wandered, or more likely the budget has been exceeded by many times, so good plants may be […]
Letting the GM genie out of its biotech bottle hasn’t just changed day-to-day life on our allotments, it’s now taking over control of life itself. They’ll be here soon. The moment – preceded by a warning bleep – that the clinical, electronic voice announced, “Patent violation detected. Please submit immediately to your BeyondNature crop analyst […]
