Hartley Magazine

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

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Grow Your Own Avocado – A perfect winter greenhouse project

Most of us have tried to grow an avocado (Persea americana) tree from seed. Although an avocado plant can be grown in any large, indoor room, it’s also does well in a heated greenhouse. Both heat and humidity must be kept fairly high for an avocado tree to thrive. To grow an avocado from seed, […]

Growing Tropical Herbs

Tropical herbs need warm temperatures to keep growing year round, making them perfect plants for a greenhouse that’s heated during winter. I grow ginger, galangal, and lemon grass in my winter-heated greenhouse and use them to make delicious Thai food. Here’s how to cultivate each of them. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) There are several different types […]

Getting to know Perennial Greenhouse Herbs

For the home cook there is nothing lovelier than sprinkling chopped fresh oregano and basil onto a pizza or putting a fresh bay leaf in a winter stew and sprinkling chopped parsley over the top when serving it. Many home cooks over-winter herbs in pots on a sunny window sill, but as low light levels […]

What Shall We Grow? Decisions that must happen before winter.

An empty greenhouse stands beckoning in your yard, waiting to be stocked with plants, but you aren’t sure what plants to choose. Don’t allow yourself to go into “brain freeze”. Starting asking questions: Do you fill your greenhouse with orchids, other flowering plants, fruiting vines, cactuses, herbs, vegetables, or even small fruit trees? There are […]

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Starting seeds is a year round activity in a greenhouse

To harvest winter crops in your greenhouse, starting seeds soon is a must. How do you choose the best pot in which to start seeds? Do you use a seed flat? A seed flat with an insert? A square pot? Round pots? Jiffy pots? There is a huge choice of pots and pot materials available […]

Cautionary tale about greenhouse pests – Ticks and Lyme Disease

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 […]

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Potting soil shockers and other news!

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 […]

Introducing Roger Marshall

Roger Marshall’s journey Gardening came to me naturally, while growing up in England in the 1950s. At that time, with war time shortages still distressing the UK economy, commercial fertilizers were hard to come by, so we made compost and used natural organic materials to fertilize our gardens, practices that I continue using today. English […]