As spring departs and we move into summer, it is time to move plants outside for the summer where they can be watered naturally and the greenhouse can be made ready for fall and winter. You don’t have to do these chores right away, but spread them out over the entire summer so that you […]
It’s summer and gardens around the country are already bursting with home-grown fruits and vegetables. Still, it’s not too early to think about bringing in the harvest—especially in places with short growing seasons. “Ninety days is what I’ve got to work with,” says Pat Munts, Spokane-based author of The Northwest Gardener’s Handbook. Pat is also […]
Earth-friendly plant protection is a finely judged art, but with a little ingenuity you can thwart the pests while providing safe passage for pollinators. Now it begins. Yellow daggers wait poised and patient at the doors. Sharp claws wrench blood-curdling screeches from the glass. Sets of vicious, hazelnut-honed incisors pluck and twang at the wire […]
The doctor said that nobody gets Lyme Disease in December! I did and figured that I picked up the tick in my greenhouse! I wasn’t checking for it because it was, after all, December. But I had seen a mouse in the greenhouse a month or so before the incident. I figured it came in […]
Lawn maintenance is the most common activity for gardeners around the United States. Yet some popular lawn-care practices have no basis in reality. They’re myths, says C.L. Fornari, author, speaker, and self-styled “garden geek.” In her newest book, Coffee for Roses, C.L., debunks all kinds of garden lore and hand-me-down tips. So this time of […]
The other day I dropped by my brother’s new home and he proudly showed me the beds he had just planted with hypoestes (polka dot plant). “They’re great,” I said. “But you know they’re annuals. You’ll have to replace them next year.” His face fell. “But at the garden center they told me they were […]
June is an ideal time to sow fast maturing vegetables if your sowing season has been disrupted by late frosts and cold weather this spring. Spring onions, early carrots and salads can be sown regularly until August, making the next sowing when the previous seedlings have germinated, so there is still plenty of time for […]
Potting soil is the most important ingredient for starting a terrific garden. It is also an important item for most indoor plants (Cactus and orchids being the exception, both require specialized mediums for growing.) Potting Soil Components – this will shock you. Compost is a major ingredient. Good compost is made from rotted vegetation but […]
Staff on the Hartley Botanic stand at the Chelsea Flower Show welcomed a very special guest this week – Sarah is the granddaughter of Norman Hartley who together with his brother Vincent founded V & N Hartley in 1938. Sarah’s mother Elizabeth (Normans daughter) has spoken to Sarah of her memories of visiting Chelsea the year of […]
Perennials are often touted as “easy-care,” but not all perennials are equal. Like many gardeners, I want ones that don’t need frequent dividing or deadheading. I need plants that are not fussy as to soil or weather conditions—and come back year after year. That’s a lot to ask for, I know, so this month I’m […]
If you have not grown anything in Europe lately, you may not have noticed the battle going on between peat moss and coir. Well, it’s not actually a battle. More like a rout. Peat moss, which came into widespread use in the late 1940’s, has been vanquished back to its bogs. The reason: peat (or […]
One of my favorite places, the great Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, is all shiny and sparkly. In a good way. I remember when it was shiny and sparkly in a bad way: the day in June 2011 after golf-ball-sized hailstones smashed 60 percent of the glass in the nearly 2 acres of display greenhouses […]
