Hartley Magazine
Environmental Gardening
With just two years left until the 2020 target for all gardening to be peat-free, it’s now obvious that ‘the market’ should never have been trusted to lead the way. Let’s hit pause on pantomime season, and jog our memories. This is from Richard Benyon, the then Natural Environment Minister, in December 2010: ‘The horticultural […]
It litters our landscapes and pervades our soils, our seas, our atmosphere – and our plots. Tackling gardening’s dependency on plastic requires some radical new thinking. More moons ago than I dare count, I played my part in creating one of the most urgent and pernicious crises now bearing down on the living world. It’s […]
Consider the global air pollution crisis alongside the desperate need to conserve resources and there’s only one possible conclusion: it’s time to extinguish the tradition of the garden bonfire. As a boy, I was pretty whiffy. Out in the garden until dark, I would eventually come indoors, a noxious plume in my wake. A bath […]
If you need to be inspired by the power of composting all over again, just take a look at the figures; the quantity of ‘waste’ that an ordinary bin can divert from landfill is quite remarkable. I stopped, teetering on the bin’s rim, about to make a terrible, albeit colourful, mistake. The first post-Christmas hoovering […]
A readily available mulch will put the heart back into your soil – without you needing to put your back into it. It’s dragged on for long enough. That great day when I make, find or buy the time to push up my sleeves and ‘get on with it’ isn’t going to arrive any time […]
The facts are incontrovertible, the consequences are devastating, and the alternatives are effective and easily available – so the continued use of peat compost brings shame on us all. This could end up being one of the most ill-tempered, unforgiving and shame-flinging pieces I have ever written. I’m not happy about it, but it must […]
No garden is an island: a thriving diversity of natives, neighbours and migrants will result in a healthy, vibrant growing community. Right now the air is buzzing. It’s alive with chants for ‘Brexit!’, calls for ‘Remain!’, and voices mulling whether to leave, or whether to stay. Are we better off in, working side by side […]
Quality peat-free compost doesn’t need to come out of a bag, and it certainly isn’t sterile and sanitised. It’s time to rip up the rule book. My idea of an adventure doesn’t require me to jet off on some adrenaline-fuelled, round-the-planet jaunt. Although I’m inherently curious – I love exploring new places – I don’t […]
The peat-free message is finally being broadcast far and wide – but it’s gardeners and growers, rather than the gardening media, who are doing the telling.
For those that want to help the plight of the UK’s butterfly population, you can support many species of butterfly by encouraging them into your garden. If you want to do so, it’s important to know what kind of plants attract butterflies into certain areas. Adult butterflies will take and feed on nectar from a […]
If you want to help the bees, bee savvy says Jean Vernon January brings a glut of seed and plant catalogues through the door, all vying for attention with their attractive bright and tempting pick and mix of plants. For the greenhouse gardener it’s a welcome distraction from the current wet, murky winter and a […]
Dumbing down the National Pollinator Strategy is unlikely to inspire gardeners to take their vital role seriously – so it’s hardly going to help the bees. My job, as an independent gardening writer, is not just to tap out occasionally colourful, hopefully informative, possibly thought-prodding and – dare I say it – sometimes witty prose […]
