Hartley Magazine

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

An expensive bargain: cheap potting mix

In life and gardening, we all make mistakes—sometimes, even when we know better. My big mistake this year (so far) was buying cheap potting mix. I understand perfectly well how important the quality of potting mix is to container plants in greenhouses, in the house, and outdoors. I know that the mix must be light […]

Cold-hardy cactus for extreme gardening

Every garden I’ve visited has taught me something new. Be it a tropical conservatory that reveals an exotic plant I’d never before seen, or a hard-working greenhouse that tutors me in a growing technique to raise better plants, it all makes for a smarter garden and gardener. For example, at Hunting Brook garden in Ireland, […]

Written in United Kingdom

Top-down solutions

Forget complex, resource-hungry gadgetry, and soak up simplicity: earth-friendly mulches make greenhouse watering easy and guilt-free. Gardening – especially any-weather greenhouse gardening – is a just-steps-away activity that offers us sanctuary from our increasingly busy-busy, rushed, technology-driven lives. Plants don’t go ever-faster to keep up with the latest app, or to improve their efficiency; they just grow, chasing […]

Share a Plant, Create Community—Dina Russell has a vision

How would you like to meet more of your neighbors, celebrate the bounty of your garden, forge new friendships on common ground, and strengthen your community ties? Dina Russell, gardener and founder of PlantShare®, believes plants can help you do all of that. “Think about it—the development of the original human society was created by […]

Written in United Kingdom

Scindapsus aureus, Devil’s ivy

Devil’s Ivy is a robust variegated scrambling climber, not exactly exciting but so very useful. It’s one of those near bomb-proof plants essential in warm greenhouse, frost free conservatory, the home and many an office. A born survivor it puts up with shade and neglect only eventually dying from cold, prolonged drought or severe water-logging. […]