At Hartley Botanic we have a good relationship with many knowledgeable garden writers both in the UK and USA – here you can enjoy reading their articles and gardening tips.
It’s berry season here in Rhode Island. The raspberries, blueberries, red and white currants are all ripe and ready to be picked. Strawberries have almost finished. In a few weeks blackberries will also be available. These berry plants produce several pounds of fruit each season, most of which goes into the freezer for pies, smoothies […]
Movie buffdom is not my realm; I watch, am entertained (or not), but a week later couldn’t relate the plot if you paid me. With one exception: the closing scene of ‘The Godfather’. The entire movie is iconic, I get it, but that final scene gripped me because of the size of the tomato plants […]
Our local weather forecast is for sunshine, more sunshine, and nothing but sunshine. In fact, we haven’t had a heavy rainstorm since April 23rd. For a gardener, that’s a problem, especially when the local water board has banned outdoor lawn and garden watering because of drought. So what does a gardener do? One answer is […]
Mmmm! Biting into a fresh tomato on a hot summer day can be one of a gardener’s most pleasurable experiences. But if you haven’t grown tomatoes before, what do you need to know? Here are some basic answers. First, you need to decide whether to grow determinate or indeterminate tomatoes. Determinate plants are smaller and […]
Writing this during the May’s closing days, after winter’s final hurrah (I hope, but this is Colorado and it’s a bit dodgy to count on it), my neighbors and I have been digging out dandelions in the faint hope of eliminating them from our lawns and gardens. It would be nice if the flowers were, […]
It all depends how you look at it. Is your garden a demanding diva, that requires the constant attentions of the stylist, the groomer, the maid-of-all-work to keep the whole shebang tidy? Or is just plain fun to be with? A place that makes you laugh, mostly at mistakes that, to your eye, turn out […]
It’s warming up in Rhode Island, but the wind is still very cold off the ocean because the ocean water is only about 43°F (6°C) in late April. This cold early springtime breeze keeps my garden temperature roughly two weeks behind inland areas. To counter this issue, I start most seeds in my basement and […]
Having a wide-ranging collection of gardening books amassed over the decades of my writing career often provides me with ideas for this column and always gives me a lift when gardening gets tough. In those moments, my library reminds me that whatever the problem/pleasure/trend is in the world of the garden, it has all been […]
Here in New England, snow from the recent record-breaking storm is being washed away by torrential rain as I write this. Most nights still have frost, but the dreaded nighttime temperatures in the teens (oF) seem over. Although it’s still too cold and wet to work in the garden, it’s time to start plants so […]
After a winter storm here in New England, a new layer of snow often lies deep on the ground. In the early morning, it also covers the greenhouse, providing insulation that reduces nighttime heating bills and also adds a delightful softness to the roof’s outline. But as the day wears on, the greenhouse interior warms. […]
“If the last month was so severe that little work could be done in the garden, there will be a necessity for forwarding business in this, provided the season be favorable.” Thus wrote Phillip Miller, in his 1775 edition of the Gardener’s Kalendar, setting out the “work to be done” in every part of the […]
Winters in the southwest are at best variable to say the least. It may be the cold season, but weeks of warm, spring-like warm weather can’t fool us, we know it suddenly change overnight to unseemly arctic conditions. That’s the moment we gardeners swap the spade for a snow shovel, or possibly a broom since […]
