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 […]

Things have changed a lot since I did my degree in botany many, many moons ago. In those (prehistoric) days research into plant genetic engineering wasn’t really funded by big business, it was championed by small university science labs around the country all hoping to find the magical cure for the world food shortage. How […]

You certainly need a heated greenhouse to crop this beauty, but not to grow it. The papaw plant is easy to grow, even on a sunny windowsill, well at first. You see this is one of the fastest growing of all, from seed to a veritable small tree the first year. It’s much better as […]

All is good down in the greenhouse today. Too good. It doesn’t seem right: at this time of year, for the last few years, the greenhouse has been a murky mass of frozen and rotted stems, the door almost frozen shut. I’ve barely dared to go down there for fear the icy blast of the […]

In a garden near you there’s a greenhouse looking for love – and giving it a new home would make your ‘gardening footprint’ a few sizes smaller. “Will you stop peeping?” Joining me for a walk at this time of year sooner or later drives my companions to utter this corrective phrase (or something blunter) as […]

When the seed catalogues start diving through the letterbox you know spring is nearly here. For the avid gardener and plantaholic there is nothing nicer than settling into a comfy chair surrounded by seed catalogues, botanical reference books and a drink of something special, hot chocolate is a good winter choice! Many gardeners have a […]

A bright sunny greenhouse or conservatory position, preferably with a warm wall, is best for this gorgeous twining evergreen climber, for Araujia sericofera, the Cruel Plant, sulks in shade. I have seen it well grown in a generous hanging basket, which helped control it’s vigour as well as keeping it high up in the brightest […]