As our climate breaks down and food security is threatened, we need a new, bottom-up approach to local food-growing that will also knit our fraying society back together. We’re hitting the ecological buffers – hard. Five exhausting heatwaves, with record-breaking high temperatures; life-threatening wildfires (some in unlikely, urban places); wild life, from plants to animals, […]
You’ve dug all the potatoes, harvested the onions and garlic, and now have open spaces in your outdoor garden. With first frost still two to three months away, there’s plenty of time to grow a second crop in these unused areas. But what’s best to grow? And when and where should you start the new […]
Interesting times lead to engaging decisions. The weather is unpredictable, blowing hot and cold like a moody teenager, and water restrictions entirely the opposite, like dan eternally staid and stern great Aunt that we all need one when times get tough, what can one do, other than put on the thinking hat and reassess. C’est […]
Are yellow flowers in the garden mellow or enough to make you bellow? Jean Vernon explores the yellow effect We call it mellow yellow, but when it comes to flowers in the garden, yellow blooms are sometimes rejected and overlooked. But why? Yellow sometimes suggests sickness, possibly associated with bile and is also associated with […]
Gardening is so much more than digging holes, plonking plants in and weeding. Take fragrance for instance. It nourishes the soul and lifts the spirits and all you have to do is breathe in deeply through the nose. When I come up my garden path on. A summer’s day, I pass a mass of border […]
Lotus tetragonolobus is delightful, easy and looks unusual, making a good ‘talking point’ to engage children’s attention. The foliage is attractive, almost geometrical in a curious way and has the rare habit of closing each evening (presumably to avoid cold night skies or browsing by night time critters such as molluscs). The flowers are recognisably […]
Although my greenhouse is currently a monoculture of tomatoes – a good year for them, by any standards, all of this heat has been incredible for them if made them almost impossibly thirsty – it is empty of all of the plants that filled it earlier in the year. They of course now fill the […]
