As food prices rise and supply chains fray and snap, a radical new approach to work and income could free up time for many more of us to grow our own. I’m ready to scream. If I hear this phrase one more time, I will: ‘cost of living crisis’. There, I’ve typed it and I’m […]

We have reached the most exciting moment in the greenhouse year – it is finally earning its keep. After months of coaxing, feeding, side-shooting and watering, the tomato harvest is upon me. This is the moment we greenhouse growers have been waiting for: trusses hanging heavy, fruit blushing from green to gold, orange, crimson and […]

August, a word defined as ‘inspiring reverence, admiration, dignity and grandeur’ in the dictionary, does not really define this late-summer month at all. Most gardens are tired and lacklustre and especially so in drought-stressed 2025. The subdued summer flourish has been and gone and the autumnal cavalcade is still waiting in the wings. And I’m […]

To get the most from your garden you need to learn to read the signs, signals and symptoms of your plants, soil and plot, says Jean Vernon Gardening is more than a hobby. It’s a deep connection with nature and an interest well-rooted in our psyche. When we tune into our plants and garden, caring […]

Now’s the time to sow Fennel, oriental vegetables like mizuna greens and Pak Choi, rocket, coriander dill, spinach, claytonia and land cress in modules. Germination will be fast and they can be planted out by mid-August for cropping in autumn. Later in the month August sow spinach, spring onions, lettuce and spring cabbage for transplanting […]

Anyone visiting your greenhouse will be intrigued by this. A real surprise, a tasty herb and an edible plant I’d never tried before. And when I tell you the genus I’m sure it will surprise you as well. The cheerful yellow flowers are a give-away, does their colour remind you of anything? These are an […]

Some like it hot – but unpredictable, climate change-fuelled spells of heat and humidity look set to play havoc with our under-cover crops. Hot, hot, hot – three heatwaves in a row, and we may not be done yet. This challenging trio has turned up the heat for gardeners everywhere. For those of us with […]

Moths are some of the most misunderstood mini-beasts in our gardens. These almost secret creatures are also pollinators and part of the food chain, Jean Vernon explains Gardeners don’t often notice moths in their gardens and that’s because many of them are active at night. Night flying moths are often (but not always) drab because […]

Midsummer’s here and the garden’s struggling, due to the hottest June since 1976. I remember 1976, with mixed feelings. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter Zoe, having had my oldest one in July 1975 in equally scorching weather. In fact, I have history with high temperatures, because my mother always said (through slightly gritted […]

Tucked into the corner of my cold greenhouse last winter, my pelargoniums looked at best unassuming, at worst half dead. But the greenhouse actually gave them exactly what they needed, keeping them alive for this precise moment in the year, for high summer, when they burst into glorious flower. I have always loved pelargoniums (often […]

Transplant Aubergines, peppers and chillies into pots one or two sizes larger filled with peat free multipurpose compost with added John Innes, as they grow. Repot when a good root system has developed but before they become pot bound and congested with roots, finally transplanting into 23 cm pots or two per growing bag to […]

Here’s a challenging greenhouse plant combining delightful perfume, charming almost fern like foliage, usefully catching flies, with another even more macabre habit. Dewy Pine, Drosophyllum lusitanicum, is unique, truly carnivorous, one of THE most effective fly catchers, yet unlike almost all others not a bog plant. Apparently this can also survive passing undergrowth fires, probably […]