Hartley Magazine

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

It could be the right time to plant trees

With the days starting to get lighter in the coming weeks, people’s thoughts can quite rightly start moving towards what to do in their gardens in order to keep their green-fingered minds at ease. Winter is always the most boring time of the year for any keen horticulturalist but the one thing the time off […]

Four Favorite Small Trees—Planning next year’s garden? Don’t forget the trees.

There’s a gardening aphorism—“The best time to plant a tree?  Twenty years ago. And the second-best time to plant a tree? Now.” This month I’m looking back twenty years to my local Northwest experts—Roger Gossler of Gossler Farms, and Harold Greer of Greer Gardens who recommended that I plant these four small trees. Thanks, gentlemen, […]

Demand for gardening has ‘never been stronger’

There is an increasing number of people looking to get involved in gardening not only to feed themselves or for aesthetic reasons but also as a way to keep fit, it has been suggested. This is the claim of president and chief executive of the Chicago Botanic Garden Sophia Siskel after the institution announced that […]

Winter Surprise – Amaryllis

They were everywhere around the holidays—at groceries and big box stores— but despite their ubiquitous availability, Amaryllis can still surprise us. First, consider their name—it turns out they might not really be Amaryllis at all. Although Carl Linnaeus created the epithet  Amaryllis belladonna in 1753, it was originally applied to both South African and South […]

Planning ahead is the key to a bountiful vegetable garden

If you want to be the envy of your block this summer with a range of delicious vegetables , you should be starting your first steps towards creating your vegetable patch now. First-time gardeners must ensure that their patch is small to start with, as July should find people wishing they had made their garden […]

Prune trees now in preparation for warm weather

It’s getting closer and closer to that time where we need to dust down the trowels, rakes, cutters, mowers and strimmers and tend to the garden after the barren winter months. Jobs such as pruning fruit trees or other woody type plants in the garden can be done now as they need to be completed […]

South African Winter Blooming Bulbs

What can you enjoy in your winter greenhouse that requires little care the rest of the year? In a recent conversation with Scott Canning, Director of Horticulture at Wave Hill– the public garden in Riverdale, New York– I learned about some South African winter-blooming bulbs growing in Wave Hill’s conservatory this winter. Since South African […]