Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

Texan greenhouse growers given landscaping advice

Garden and greenhouse growers in Texas have been given advice by Houston‘s garden guru.

Randy Lemmon told ABC News that growers can save a fortune by avoiding the services of landscape gardeners.

He explained that such professionals will charge up to 40 per cent more per plant than if people buy them from nurseries.

The expert suggested homeowners create a tiered system for their outdoor space, choosing a variety of colours and textures over two or three levels.

Mr Lemmon‘s advice included starting with a layer of trees or large bushes, before complementing them with shrubs, flowers and ornamental grasses.

Another piece of wisdom was to use stones to create raised beds and add diversity to the landscape.

“You get a bright yellow leaf plant up against a darker green one – that‘s a colour tiering with two different types of plants that are going to stay that way pretty much year round,” he explained to the news provider.

Meanwhile, a new garden and greenhouse product has been released which can send text messages to remind growers when it is time to tend to certain plant varieties.

  • Enjoys

    Hi, I have been growing teoatoms in the greenhouse for many years and initially used all grow bags. However I found that the bags got extremely hot. The greenhouse is totally paved and the paving stones get very hot very quickly. I had some breeze block left over from the building of our extension and used these to make a trough about 16 deep and around two grow bag lengths long. I lined it with plastic, put in about 3 of gravel, put three lengths of 2 pipe sitting upright on top of gravel then topped up with compost. I water down the pipes and feed from the top. This takes 6 plants and has been a great success. They don’t get over hot yet are kept reasonably warm at night from the blocks’ residual heat. I just wash out the gravel when the plants are removed (they take most of the compost with them). I suppose this is just another form of ring culture without the rings! It has worked a treat for me anyway!