It’s safe to say it hasn’t been a vintage year for tomatoes and I think mine have fared worse than most. A late start, a dull, cool summer, and a decision to leave my bubblewrap up as shading (it seemed like a masterstroke at the time) have left me with an abundance of ripening tomatoes, […]
In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]
Colour is such a personal thing and most of us have a favourite. Mine of course is orange and it’s the choice of an exuberant Leo lady. You see I was born on the hottest day of the year, in July, and my mother never let me forget it. I’m unusual I know, for orange […]
A glasshouse gem often seen on a kitchen window sill is the Hot-water plant with its long flowering display of pastel trumpet blooms. Related to Gloxinias several dozen species were introduced from Central America in the late 18C early 19C. These were tropical plants requiring hot house conditions and were soon hybridised to be more […]
In the last 30 years I’ve had two gardens and, although there were only 20 miles apart, they were as different as chalk and cheese, a bit like my children! My old garden in Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, famous for its beer, was a stone’s throw away from the church. The one-acre garden was on […]
You might try and grow Acidanthera without a greenhouse, but only when growing in one will they come into their full glory. These are very tall, rather elegant plants when in grown in tubs under cover. Outdoors however, they become stunted, beaten and can suffer badly from strong winds. More importantly, they also dislike cold […]
Now’s the time of year to buy Amaryllis, (Hippeastrum) ready for flowering for the festive season. Start them into growth in the greenhouse then bring them indoors to flower. Water sparingly at first; trickling a little tepid water around the bulb, and increasing the amount as growth appears. Once they are actively growing, keep them […]
The way we garden reveals a lot about our outlook on the world. It comes down to whether we feel gratitude to planet Earth – or think it owes us.
Could a new – and renewable – product on the market provide a nutrient-rich boost for home-made peat-free mixes? Early trials are bearing fruit. Whenever a new and – yawn – ‘amazing’ product blips on my gardening radar, the first alarm bells to go off are perfect twins: caution and scepticism. I’ve seen plenty of […]
Until recently greenhouse pests were fumigated with smoke from smouldering tobacco. For nicotine kills most creatures in addition to long term damage when smoked by us foolish humans. Tobacco is now considered a rather dirty habit but the plants themselves should not be frowned upon. In the flower garden most of us probably know the […]
I normally have such rotten luck with basil – rotting, wilting, keeling over at who knows what – that this year I spread the risk. Rather than rely on the famously stroppy sweet basil for all my basil needs, I tried out a few others. Expecting the usual death and destruction, I sowed about 30 […]
It is time to deck my halls and I have found myself foraging in the greenhouse for materials. Of course there are a couple of rules to the making of a wreath, and one of those is that the majority of it must be made of evergreens, and you wont find any of those in […]
