I picked up a copy of The Times the other day to be met by a headline declaring that the wet weather we’ve been having is affecting our mental health. Yes, we are all feeling under the weather Mr Times, but we’ll all recover once the sun shines again. And so will my garden. It’s […]

Although greenhouse tomatoes have so far seldom been devastated by Blight to anywhere near the same extent as outdoor crops this seems worryingly on the increase. To say little of wilts, rots and the dreaded Mosaic virus. (Interestingly though Mosaic virus infections have decreased with the decline in smoking ie handling tobacco was the source). […]

Sow celeriac, spinach and turnip in modules early in the month. Use peat free seed or finely sieved multipurpose compost; larger seeds like peas and beans can be sown in straight multipurpose compost. Sow half-hardy annuals including climbers for ornamental outdoor displays. Like all greenhouse grown plants, they need ‘hardening off’ ready for transplanting once […]

I have some small lettuce seedlings that I started in the greenhouse and it is time to plant them out and get some summer salads going. The weather has been so very wet here in the southwest of England this spring that the garden is well behind, and the only work that has really occurred […]

In an increasingly chaotic, frenetic world, we need to find a still centre – and for greenhouse gardeners, there’s one safe zone where we can be sure of feeling grounded. It’s all a bit too much, isn’t it? Too volatile, too costly, too unpredictable, too unsettling, and without a doubt, at times, too downright nasty. […]

Give your greenhouse an amazing splash of colour through late summer and autumn from sowing the dwarf Pomegranate right now. This natural bonsai is a perfect miniature of the exotic Pomegranate tree only attaining a few inches of height in a year, possibly a metre or more in a decade. Yet despite the tiny growth […]

Anyone that follows my features in the Hartley magazine, knows that I don’t usually encourage new gardeners to grow tomatoes. And that’s because they are precocious little madams that demand constant attention and care. Now I don’t mind mollycoddling plants to ensure that they perform to their full potential, but there are a few booby […]

Peaches and nectarines flower early in the year when there are few insects about, so hand pollination is the only way to ensure a good crop. It works best after two or three dry warm days when most of the flowers are open. When the time is right, there will be a dusting of pollen […]

It’s time to get sowing and growing, because spring is in the air. In the last few days, I’ve had a cup of tea in the garden, my face warmed by the sun for the first time this year. My ginger tomcat Frank has been rolling about, with his legs in the air, and this […]

One of the plants I have kept in the greenhouse all winter is wasabi. Wasabi is native to Japan and in the wild it grows in near woodland streams, on mountains, and so at high altitude. All of this works in our favour when growing it in the UK. Japan and the UK are not […]

For passing wild life, a garden made in nature offers a welcoming stopover – and for the gardener, there is the joy of myriad encounters with the creatures that share our world. A gang of long-tailed tits has just swept through my garden on a tepid February breeze, lit up by milky, spring-is-around-the-corner sunshine. Darting […]

It’s cold in Cold Aston and my two lovely daughters do a wonderful Stella Gibbons act in the same sort of northern accent you get on the Hovis advert – where the young lad pushes the bike up Gold Hill in Shaftesbury in Dorset.  I have trouble propelling myself up that steep hill, let alone […]