With autumn in full swing, whatās the best thing to do with the leaves? Should you leave the leaves or something else? Jean Vernon explores. When we think of autumn leaves it either conjures the beauty of the fiery foliage fireworks as the trees shed their cloak and slip towards winter, or we envisage the […]
The potential for a grow-your-own revolution is already built into urban landscapes ā all that is needed is the will and the vision to unleash it. After over 20 years of rural living, a fortnight spent in an urban, edge-of-town setting has reinforced my lifelong belief that gardening ā in all its forms ā is […]
There can now be no pretence that anything else is going to ripen in the greenhouse this year. A greenhouse can do a lot but the clocks have changed, the dark is creeping in, and the weather has cooled, and we have to give up thinking that those final rays of low sunlight might turn […]
Okay, I was misled into getting seed for this greenhouse ādelightā, from the advertisements I foolishly imagined the flavour would be delicious. From itās parentage it looked promising; the Solanum family gives us many tasty fruits, so this āeasy annualā Lychee / Litchi Tomato, S. sisymbrifolium could be an excellent crop. Coming from Brazil this […]
Clear autumn leaves from gutters as they start to fall. Prevent downpipes from clogging by putting a pan scourer in the hole at the top, then clearing the debris as it backs up, from time to time. Collect rainwater in a waterbutt, when it is full, water at the base of fences under the eaves […]
Unlike the costly high-tech carbon capture and storage strategies being proposed to mitigate climate change, tree-planting is free, simple, people-powered ā and proven. Iāve beaten the redwings to it. The crowd has skirted along the edge of the wood and descended on my neighbourās rowans, where theyāre now merrily stripping them of their dazzling orange […]
Winter is knocking on the door once again and thereās lots to do in the garden in preparation. The trouble is you can never predict what winter will bring and I would like every gardener to be provided with their own personal crystal ball ā particularly now that our climateās so changeable. What will the […]
Whether you want to plant for wildlife or deter burglars, the humble bramble has many attributes I have a long and chequered history with the humble blackberry. As a child I lived on a crescent of houses and in the middle of the crescent was an allotment site, where we had a plot. We didnāt […]
It is annoying when one of your great greenhouse successes of the year is not one you plantedā¦ or even particularly wanted, but so it has proved this year. Call me a party pooper but I am not a big fan of a giant pumpkin. I love Halloweāen and I love the pumpkinās role in […]
So why on Earth would you want to grow this in your greenhouse? Well, because this is a living āpot pourriā. A South American relative of Asters itās delightful though as the disparaging quote from Paxtonās Botanical Dictionary suggests itās neither graceful, compact, neat nor colourful. Thus certainly not a centrepiece, nor a background foliage […]
I hope you have invested in at least one Hartley Botanic Water Butt to collect rain from the deluge that has poured down on our glasshouses over the past weeks. Use the tepid rainwater in the greenhouse on acidic loving plants like Citrus and if you have spare, water under the eaves over winter in […]
Quiet, non-polluting, kind to wildlife, people-powered, earth-friendly: scythes win over strimmers on every count ā but sometimes you need to see to believe. Itās the sound that pulls them in ā the harsh, honing rip of stone against steel isnāt an everyday sound here. As soon as I start sharpening, heads start to turn. āIs […]
