At Hartley Botanic we have a good relationship with many knowledgeable garden writers both in the UK and USA – here you can enjoy reading their articles and gardening tips.
It’s time to fall in love with snails. Jean Vernon unravels some of the myths and magic regarding these creatures Snails? What good are they? I hear you ask? Well you might be very surprised what different roles these unassuming characters play not just in your garden but in the greater environment too. Food stuff […]
Indian Shot or Cannas are happiest in frost free greenhouses or a conservatory, they can even go outside all summer. But their lush foliage and incandescent blooms look better for longer under cover where their tropical appearance also seems more appropriate. Found in almost all frost free parts of the world the Cannas are possibly […]
July is a busy time in the greenhouse, not just for maintenance but sowing and harvesting, too. Maintain a regular regime of feeding and watering with tepid water. Find out if your containerised plants need watering by sticking your finger into the surface of the compost, if your finger is free of compost particles when […]
I like this time of year in the greenhouse. I find the rush of spring almost overwhelming and hate that feeling that I’m never quite keeping up with everything – that mad dash to get everything sown and into pots and then into the ground in time to take advantage of our always-too-short season keeps […]
The best thing about having a Hartley greenhouse, especially in the sort of summer we seem to be having, is that you can get away from the weather. This year my peonies were washed away in mid-June and then my roses took a real battering at the end of the month. In fact I’ve never […]
Forget complex, resource-hungry gadgetry, and soak up simplicity: earth-friendly mulches make greenhouse watering easy and guilt-free. Gardening – especially any-weather greenhouse gardening – is a just-steps-away activity that offers us sanctuary from our increasingly busy-busy, rushed, technology-driven lives. Plants don’t go ever-faster to keep up with the latest app, or to improve their efficiency; they just grow, chasing […]
If you want to do something that will make a big difference to the environment, plant trees says Jean Vernon Trees are the lungs of the planet. During the day they use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a process called photosynthesis that makes sugars to fuel their growth and produces oxygen. It’s a phenomenal […]
Devil’s Ivy is a robust variegated scrambling climber, not exactly exciting but so very useful. It’s one of those near bomb-proof plants essential in warm greenhouse, frost free conservatory, the home and many an office. A born survivor it puts up with shade and neglect only eventually dying from cold, prolonged drought or severe water-logging. […]
In June there is plenty to do. Aubergines, peppers and chillies should be transplanted as they grow into pots one or two sizes larger when there is a good root system but before they become pot bound, finally transplanting into 23 cm pots or two per growing bag. You can instinctively tell by the size […]
A good garden should shine throughout the year and it should also provide plenty of nectar from early spring until late autumn. This is the time of year to think about late-flowering plants, because many of them come from the southern hemisphere, particularly South America. Flowers tend to be pigment packed, with plenty of reds, […]
It is time to pull the hanging baskets out of the glasshouse and let them take their chances in the outside world. I love cosseting hanging baskets in the greenhouse early in the year, it is one of the real benefits of having a greenhouse: that you get to grow them on for a bit […]
Most people buying compost still have no idea what’s in the bag – or why it matters. As the climate crisis escalates, that needs to change – and fast. I recently did a spot of crowd-sourcing via social media: Twitter, in this case. I asked – via the hashtag #peatfree – for ideas, tips and […]
