A few years back, there was an ad on TV for some sort of ready meal. In the 10 minutes it took to ‘boil in the bag’, the woman was able to use the extra time to take up the cello, get as fit as Madonna or complete her Phd. I thought about this the […]
This winter is like the winters of old and is the coldest for over ten yars, with snow and chilling winds. It will be interesting to discover how many of the plants that have overwintered over the past few milder years, still survive. Unfortunately, the thermostat on my greenhouse heater failed during one of the […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta Obviously this was not the week to let rip in the greenhouse: my sweet peas and peppers have been moved into the dining room to await the melting of snow. I’ve consoled myself with scrubbing out pots with a pot brush (hygiene is vital in a greenhouse) and […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta I have just spent the most magical first day in my new greenhouse. The bulk of it was spent “feathering the nest”: sorties to the shed to bring in supplies of compost, propagator, labels, hand tools, trays, seeds, radio, riddle, watering can, seat. Then came the final moment […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta How do you use an auto-vent? When is the best time to damp down the greenhouse? Have I got too much condensation? Whenever I’m new to a subject I like to enlist the help of experienced friends for advice, but I also like to bury myself in books […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta I know that the sap is always supposed to rise in spring, but in January I always find that I feel more like a salmon swimming in a stream or the mole from “Wind in the Willows”. I don’t quite understand what happens every year – there I […]
In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta
I am not normally an indecisive person when it comes to shopping, nor, come to it, was my mother. Whenever we deliberated too much over a purchase, she used to say to us in her native Spanish ‘No es para casarse!’ – ‘It’s not as if you’re getting married over it!’
I wonder if she would be surprised to know that I spent more time deciding on which greenhouse to buy than I did over deciding whether to marry my husband. Neither is to be undertaken lightly: a greenhouse, like a husband, is for life.
The only way to get through January, is to think of spring! Those long dark days and evening are the ideal ‘Preparation Time’ for warmer days ahead, it’s a chance to browse through seed catalogues or websites and order anything from an ever increasing choice of new vegetable varieties so you are ready for seed […]
The wonderful display of lush leaves from my Canna’s this year has now been frosted and now the foliage has been cut back and composted, the rhizomes will be stored in their pots in my frost free greenhouse. This once popular ‘exotic’ plant has been blighted by the arrival of a virus, reducing their vigour […]
It’s trendy, we’re told by certain superstores and style setters, to have a black Christmas tree or even an upside-down one, artificial, of course, and, because they last for years, they are more environmentally friendly than plantation-grown real ones. Well, if the tree you buy has been sustainably grown in the UK (and, this year, […]
October is peak time for apple picking in my garden – most of the twenty four varieties growing as easy to manage cordons are ready by then. Harvesting is easy, ‘lift and twist’ gently and the fruit should detach, if not try another day. It’s a leisurely and therapeutic operation, pop five fruits in a […]
It is always great to have an early Autumn surprise in the garden, particularly after the second dreadful summer in succession. Those who still talk of water shortages and the need for ‘dry’ gardens to counter the predicted hot dry summers should surely reconsider their views as global warming seems to be going to extemes […]
