Hartley Magazine

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

Greenhouses ‘are great in the winter’

Winter can be a very frustrating time for gardening enthusiasts, as the range of activities that they can be getting on with becomes severely limited. Greenhouses are a great way of getting around this, as they are controlled environments that can allow the gardener to maintain some plants out of their traditional season. Temperature, levels […]

Hellebores ‘are a very important plant’

There is so much to do in a garden this winter that it can be very difficult for green-fingered enthusiasts to narrow down their to-do list. However, the importance of planting in the colder months cannot be overstated – as sowing seeds now is essential to the development of certain plants. Chief horticultural adviser for […]

The 2013 Seed Review

It’s the time of year for garden dreaming—and searching through catalogs. Whether you’re about to begin seeding in the greenhouse, or just planning ahead for the warmer days we’ll eventually enjoy outdoors, you might be interested in these recent catalog introductions. Serious set-backs in our tomato-patch last season have caused me to focus exclusively on […]

Water conservation ‘is important in a greenhouse’

Scientists are still unsure about whether or not global warming will become evident in our climate in the coming years, as well as exactly what impact it will have if it does. However, it’s fair to say that we’ve been forced to put up with some pretty variable weather lately, from torrential rain and associated […]

Gardeners ‘can change focus in 2013’

There are trends in the worlds of fashion and interior design each year, so you might be interested to hear that gardening is no different – 2013 is likely to usher in a host of new approaches that you could adopt yourself to liven up your green space. Horticultural experts spoke to British newspaper the […]

Call it a sign of the times

Call it a sign of the times—but gardening and farming projects have become an important part of school curriculums all across New York City. According to GreenThumb, a division of the City Parks Department that provides schools with technical support, the number of school-based gardens registered with the city jumped from 40 to 232 in […]

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A Retort for Winter’s early roar

Winter has raged into Chicago. It was down in the teens a week before Thanksgiving, the kind of weather that freezes the soil like concrete and drives even diehard gardeners like me to the shelter of a greenhouse. I can’t quit gardening yet, though, because I have a problem: Some 300 bulbs I didn’t manage […]

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A Waterwise Irrigation Hybrid—Why You Need Sprinklers and Drip Combined

The summer’s too dry, or the summer’s too wet—weather swings across the U.S. are dramatic. Now more than ever, gardeners should consider steady and efficient water delivery for the times when plants need it. In the past, a permanent installation involved a choice—either underground pipes with sprayer heads, or drip with flexible half-inch pipe and […]