Every growing season is different – but with gardeners across the country agreeing that this year’s is downright odd, have we reached a tipping point in our gardens and greenhouses? What word would encapsulate your gardening experiences this year – or, for that matter, since last autumn? Unusual? Peculiar? Weird? Abnormal? Only one nails it […]

Our gardens really do have a route into our mind, body and souls. I don’t know about you but I simply love to lose myself in the garden or in nature. It’s something that I have always done and I didn’t realise it was a kind of meditation or mindfulness. There is something about escaping […]

Genistas are excellent choices for hot dry greenhouses and conservatories especially those where you have little time to attend regularly. Although most Genistas are fairly hardy including some natives a majority of the near 70 species come from around the Mediterranean and so revel in hot dry positions under a fierce sun. Most are deciduous, […]

The greenhouse has now been planted up with tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and some basil, and the growing year is underway. I want to say ‘finally’ – it is finally underway. It all happened quite late this year – that long, cold, wet spring really didn’t lend itself to early sowings and plantings, even under glass, […]

I feel as though I’ve been climbing up a very steep mountain, well more of a hill really, and I’ve got to the summit and admired the view and cooed and now I’m plodding down again – with an air of sheer relief. Yes, I’ve been to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show and I’ve seen […]

I hope that your greenhouse tomatoes are growing well, despite the lack of light. Itit is time to remove the side shoots of ‘cordon’ varieties, as they appear, using your finger and thumb, to create a single productive stem and channel moisture and energy into fruit rather than leaf. Keep the compost constantly moist, particularly […]

Now that most open ground is waterlogged for much of the year, under-cover space is more precious than ever – and a group of ingenious growers have found a way to maximise the benefits. Whooping, clapping, cursing, the clunk of metal on metal, and what sounded like a squeaking legion of wheelbarrows, crying out to […]

We need to rethink our stance on greenfly, aphids, slugs and snails, says Jean Vernon Everything in nature is interconnected, pretty much every single creature has a role to play and a vital place in the food chain. It’s like a baton being passed from runner to runner in the Olympic relay race, but the […]

Even in the shelter of the greenhouse it has been a cold, slow start to the spring this year – the endless rain in my part of the country has made getting outdoors a chore, at least up until very recently, and so I haven’t done as much sowing as I had planned to, and […]

May is the perfect month to plant those slightly tender, late performers such as salvias, penstemons, fuchsias and pennisetums, because they need to develop good root systems before winter arrives. All too often, nurseries sell these late-summer jewels in autumn when they look magnificent. However, there’s not much chance of them overwintering if they’re planted […]

If your greenhouse will overwinter Pelargoniums then it’s perfect for Heliotropes, members of the Borage family, mostly introduced from S. America in the 18C. The European Heliotrope was thought by the Ancients to turn its flowers to catch the sun thus the name. However the massed flowers of H. arborescens, Cherry Pie do not move, […]