Pernicious weed? No: beneficial insect magnet, wildlife buffet, nutrient-rich feed, compost fodder… this superpowered plant is one to welcome into your garden and greenhouse. Be sure to have some thick, sting-proof gloves at the ready – because I’m going to get you all fired up to grow arguably the most useful of all garden plants. […]

I was lucky enough, just recently, to visit Beth Chatto’s Nursery and Garden near Colchester in Essex. It should be a place of pilgrimage for every gardener but, if the only way isn’t Essex, there are plenty of tempting, expertly-grown plants on offer on the nursery’s website. The conditions within this 7-acre garden vary between […]

Nothing about this year is making me want to start moving anything tender out of the greenhouse and into the open air. Normally around this time I would be starting to think about planting out – a tiny bit earlier than elsewhere but generally here in Bristol in the south west we have a mild […]

Sometimes a few well-chosen accessories and tools can make life not only much easier, but also more satisfying too. You’ve probably got a favourite spatula for scraping the cake basin and a trusty bread knife, but what’s your go to greenhouse gadget? Here are some of mine, in no particular order. Watering wizards One of […]

It is important to ‘harden off’ or acclimatising greenhouse grown plants to outdoor conditions before finally planting them out. Move them straight from greenhouse to garden and they can suffer from shock, particularly in cooler weather; most recover but it checks growth, causes yellowing and some vegetables may ‘bolt’ or run to seed. ‘Hardening off’ […]

Even for an experienced composter, unearthing an old heap can offer a salutary refresher course in the need to treat ‘compostable’ claims with caution. I never imagined I would see this pair of Y-fronts again. They should be long gone by now, the threadbare organic cotton rotted away, disintegrated beyond recognition into crumbs of dark, […]

I know! I admit that I have too many plant passions for my own good. It begins with snowdrops, goes on to hellebores and then there are my hardy ferns, erythroniums and trilliums. Once summer arrives, it’s peonies, roses and phloxes all the way, and then my beloved dahlias take up the baton. Weather permitting, […]

It is not too late to use your greenhouse to force some early strawberries. There have of course been strawberries in the supermarkets all winter long, but these are grown in much warmer parts of the world, often with supplementary lights and heating, and then flown to us, coming with a huge carbon footprint and […]

The magic of seeds never fails to bring a smile to my face. What could be more exciting and wonderful than watching a dried-up speck start to sprout and root and begin its life as a plant? It’s a process I can watch and enjoy again and again. It’s simple, it’s nature at her very […]

An excellent talking point for your greenhouse or conservatory is the delightfully, well accurately, named Scurvy grass, Cochlearia officinalis. Here the clue definitely lies in the names. The spoon shaped (Cochlear in Greek) leaves deliver massive doses of Vitamin C and really can cure Scurvy (a skin disease caused by the lack of this Vitamin). […]

Sow broad beans, spinach, cabbage, calabrese, kohlrabi, cauliflower, lettuce, peas for pods and shoots, onions, salad onions, turnip, radish, beetroot, leeks, leaf beat and chard under glass in pots or modules for later transplanting outdoors. Sow bunching onions, beetroot and round rooted carrots in pots for later transplanting outdoors. From the middle of the month […]

Are you impatient for the phase-out of peat, or anxious about its implications for your garden and greenhouse? With the right advice, we can all look forward to a peat-free future. Peat-based compost – along with the ecological destruction that follows in its wake – is in the departure lounge. There is no turning back. […]