Provide landing pads for insect pollinators and predators and your garden will be first stop for their services. Storm Aileen has scooted through, the land is a sodden sponge, and I’m out photographing red admirals in a dry crack between September’s relentless downpours. A whole troupe of Vanessa atalanta seems to have blown in with Aileen: seven, […]
Glut buster: how to use up your veg after a stellar growing summer https://t.co/NFwqDMXMyH #growyourown #gyo… https://t.co/Ia3egUeKk9
I can’t think of another glasshouse plant that suffered from such perverse name changes as this, one of the oldest of all our houseplants now known as the Jade plant. A tender succulent from Natal in South Africa this became popular way before the Victorian era. Probably because it’s remarkably tough and undemanding as a […]
Why gardeners should protect caterpillars: an article by Alys Fowler https://t.co/0TI3Lxf48t #gardening #nature… https://t.co/SAcB1GVtYs
Autumn is the season of lawn maintenance and this is what you do. Rake out the ‘thatch’ or dead grass and moss that has accumulated over the mowing season using a wire rake, powered lawn rake or scarifier that can be rented from the tool hire shop. To save money, you could hire one and […]
In the early 1970s I worked at a Research Station. Whilst there I carried out micropropagation by cutting the growing tips ( or meristems) from plants and transferring the tiny specks into a growing medium in a glass flask. A prime ingredient was coconut milk and I put the strong state of my gnashers down […]
As late as 2020, gardeners could just walk into a shop and buy neonicotinoids over the counter. A century on, we’re still paying the price. Zilla pressed the canister to her ear. ‘They’re barely buzzing – and it’s so hot again. You sure they’re OK?’ Inside the porous container, she could just make out the […]
How to create a dog-friendly garden: https://t.co/ITndsB5uUv #gardens #gardening #gardenchat https://t.co/lSswojSEa2
It’s time to go low-mow to help feed our ailing pollinators, says Jean Vernon Lawns form the heart of most gardens, sometimes taking up half or more of the garden space. Generally the garden lawn has long been a leisure space, somewhere for the children to play and run, a space for the dog to […]
The joy of scented-leaved pelargoniums: https://t.co/OisU7FnZcW #plants #gardening #horticulture https://t.co/VJWgPXHWaZ
It is time for me to start thinking about sowing winter herbs for the glasshouse. Parsley has slowly crept into my life in a big way. It used to be a herb I shunned – a white parsley sauce has a sort of bland, milky, mildly green flavour that I have never got on with. […]
