Hartley Magazine

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

Forces of Nature in Garden Design

Sowing seed is the triumph of hope over experience, especially when seasonal conditions are wildly variable: Getting started takes a knock on the head as spring’s promise turns back to dour winter on a random schedule. Yet, growlights, warming pads, warm sweaters and other scientific advances aimed at greenhouse growing encourages us to get on […]

Cleaning the Greenhouse, Hoovering the Garden

Autumn in my corner of the Rocky Mountain’s Front Range arrived on the dot – October 14th – and so began the great garden clean up, starting with the windows of my ersatz Greenhouse. The space is glassed-in breezeway, but it serves a purpose adequately. But to make the most of winter’s weaker (but by […]

Growing avocados and other exotic edibles

Hasn’t this been the challenging summer? Here in the Rockies, we’ve experienced cool days and regular drenching rainfall seemingly every afternoon from June to July — the garden loved it! But. Unseasonable cool days and nightime temps below 50° were not a joy for the edibles: Were I growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, the harvest […]

Lavender: which one to grow, how and where?

Spring is in the air on the western slopes of the Rockies, which means nights can still drop to 20 degrees F, but days are warm(ish). Yet our bluebird skies are scattered with fluffy white clouds, and we’re dreaming of gardens to come and greenhouses to fill. Our gardens beckon…as do the nurseries. Yesterday, I […]