In the last 30 years I’ve had two gardens and, although there were only 20 miles apart, they were as different as chalk and cheese, a bit like my children! My old garden in Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, famous for its beer, was a stone’s throw away from the church. The one-acre garden was on […]
Most of the plants I’ve ever received as holiday gifts have been temporary pleasures, best enjoyed while they’re at their prettiest and then composted like cut flowers after they fade. The amount of fuss and bother required to get poinsettias to color up another year is hard to justify when you can buy them for […]
If you’re a gardener like me, who read The Secret Garden as a child, the longing for a place of enclosure was planted early. Of course, a greenhouse is one of the best ways to satisfy our desire for an indoor/outdoor life-among-the-plants kind of space. Another is a courtyard. I was reminded of this recently […]
There are many steps keen gardening enthusiasts can take in order to introduce a little color into their greenhouses. In an article for the Daily Telegraph across the pond in the UK, celebrated landscape architect Bunny Guinness said that tender perennials are often a strong choice for this purpose. She explained that the species is […]
For a number of years, I’ve grown lettuce in plastic gutters in my greenhouse. The installation is simple: Each ten-foot-long gutter hangs from brackets on a greenhouse wall, with one end four inches lower than the other. I fill the gutters with clay pellets to give the plant roots something to grip. A fish-tank pump […]
The weather report may still be full of blizzards, but once Ground Hog Day rolls around, springtime becomes less of a memory and more of a prospect. That’s when it’s worth thinking about buying or building a cold frame to get a jump on the growing season. A cold frame is a low box with […]
Now’s the time of year to buy Amaryllis, (Hippeastrum) ready for flowering for the festive season. Start them into growth in the greenhouse then bring them indoors to flower. Water sparingly at first; trickling a little tepid water around the bulb, and increasing the amount as growth appears. Once they are actively growing, keep them […]
With so many different plants to choose from, it can be difficult for gardeners to pick a specific color scheme with which to fill their greenhouses. Indeed, there are plenty of options for those who want to set their green space apart from the crowd. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Chris Marchant from Orchard Dene […]
Could a new – and renewable – product on the market provide a nutrient-rich boost for home-made peat-free mixes? Early trials are bearing fruit. Whenever a new and – yawn – ‘amazing’ product blips on my gardening radar, the first alarm bells to go off are perfect twins: caution and scepticism. I’ve seen plenty of […]
As the holidays approach, there is less to do in the garden, but more time to dream. My holiday assortment features practical gifts that encourage dreaming now and gardening later. Tubtrugs – These durable polyethylene buckets have become so essential, it’s an effort to remember how we managed before them. I use mine to haul […]
Emerging from a summer that offered plenty to complain about—unseasonably warm early temperatures followed by drought –then prolonged heat extreme even for the height of summer—it’s small comfort to learn that this season’s weather appears to be part of a larger trend. As the authors—all researchers in the earth and climate sciences– of a recent […]
Thanks to the vision of a singular gardener, a remarkable garden flourishes in Cold Spring, New York. Stone Crop www.stonecrop.org is only one of the gardens Frank Cabot created; its twelve acres inspire visitors to dream their own complex and creative horticultural dreams. From the nineteen fifties until the early nineties, the property was the […]
