The tomatoes that started in the greenhouse need planting out now – a little late but life and half term had their own ideas, so a couple of weeks ago I potted them up into big pots to keep them ticking over, and now is the moment to get these big brutes into the polytunnel. […]
Herbs are an indispensable part of the edible garden. How can there be tomatoes without basil? How can there be mint juleps without mint? Flavor is the main reason these plants are in my garden, but it’s not their natural destiny. Like most other plants, their goal is to flower. Many of our common herbs […]
True-blue is an evening star because it glows as night falls. I’m not talking cottage-garden, wishy-washy, ‘so-called blues’ in shades that hover between mauve, lavender and grey. Many campanulas, lavenders and hardy geraniums, for instance, come in these softer colours but tend to look a milky grey in evening light. Radiant blues, on the other […]
As a greenhouse owner, you can easily make your own hanging baskets rather than buying them at a nursery. If you start your basket plantings in late winter, they’ll be large, lush, and ready to put outdoors after Jack Frost has quit for the season. I prefer very large, 20”-diameter, peat-lined containers for my hanging […]
This charming greenhouse beauty was described by Linnaeus as “Mere weeds, found on old walls and stony ground, they have no beauty and are of the easiest culture”. Back then he named it as a Parietaria it then became a Helxine, and now it is Soleirolia soleiroli. The common names are even more prolific, it […]
Over the years I have made a lot of gardens in many parts of the world. They have embraced all sorts of styles and situations from the very formal, to the wildly unkempt from the classical to the modern. However, I think I confidently say that the garden we have made for Horatio in Scotland […]
Greenhouse flowers and May go together like love and marriage in June…for bridal bouquets and wedding décor. It’s a chance to push the envelope and combine traditional and modern approaches to create memorable floral moments. You’ve heard about the wedding photographer’s stylist who grabbed up a table centerpiece for the model to hold, and with […]
Remove dead or fading flowers from ornamental plants to encourage a longer flowering season. Most can be removed by snapping them off between your finger and thumb or removing them with scissors. It is a particularly useful exercise with roses, because you can wrap your hand right round the petals, gathering them all before they […]
Your greenhouse can revolutionise your garden, because it’s possible to grow a whole range of slightly tender plants, because you can raise them from cuttings. Many of these slightly tender plants come into their own from late-summer onwards, so they extend the season right up until winter beckons. This helps late-flowering pollinators (and gardeners) to […]
Spring in Chicago has been lush but short. The pink blossoms of the redbud trees are already fading and disappearing among the new green leaves, and sweeps of glorious yellow daffodils blooms have shriveled up, leaving boring green leaves. Many gardeners are tempted to cut back those leaves as soon as the flowers fade on […]
