I used to live in a wonderful village in Oxfordshire, Hook Norton. One of my great friends, gone and sadly missed, was a farmer who was born and bred there. At this time of year David used to say, “spring is just around the corner Val. The trouble is it’s a bl***y long corner.” This […]
A few years ago I moved my dwarf nectarine into the greenhouse, and it is at this moment in the year that I am glad I did. My nectarine is a dwarf variety, and has lived in a pot out of doors for many years, and so I am lucky that it is moveable. It […]
If you are worried about the lack of fresh food in the shops, it’s time to rethink your take on salads and look a bit closer at what is growing in and around your garden and greenhouse. Beat the fresh veg shortage by using some alternative salad ingredients instead. I’ve never been a great fan […]
You need be careful with Eryngium maritinum in your greenhouse, those leathery leaves have tips sharper than holly, thus the common name. Fortunately Sea Holly does not make a large plant, just a foot or so high and across, of exceptionally beautifully hued foliage. The colour is hard to capture in photographs, less green and […]
It’s a good time to repot citrus just before they start into growth. To keep my lemon tree at a manageable size, the old compost is teased gently from the roots, which are then trimmed back by about 1/3 and repotted into peat free John Innes no 2 mixed with 20% horticultural grit for drainage. […]
Support, sustenance, shading, shelter… the humble native hazel is a sustainable, renewable powerhouse. Some plants possess superpowers. Corylus avellana, our native hazel, is one of them. It’s abundant here, growing serendipitously in and around my garden, and in the neighbouring wood. I have never deliberately grown it, and only occasionally relocate a jay-sown shrubling popping up […]
Now that light is starting to increase, it is time to sow some more of the greenhouse crops. I started my chillies in January, simply because they need such a long season, but I am putting a few more in this month too. And it is time to start the aubergines and the sweet peppers. […]
If there’s one thing a Hartley Greenhouse allows you to do, it’s to go forth and propagate! And in these financially stressful times, that’s a boon because you’ll be able to create your own bit of Mediterranean magic, by raising aromatic plants from cuttings. And you’ll be able to pick your own fresh herbs, from […]
This month is when a productive greenhouse starts getting busy. We’re sowing trays of onions and leeks and starting off onion sets, potato sets likewise (in much bigger pots!). In the warmth of a propagator extra early batches of tender crops can have been sown already though often surpassed by batches sown now of: cucumbers, […]
There are two important jobs for the greenhouse at this time of year. From February onwards, it’s time to sprout (or ‘chit’) first and second early potatoes and sowing tender, long season crops like tomatoes. Gardeners’ ‘chit’ potatoes so they are already growing when planted, – it’s a chance to get ahead. The technique is […]
In this increasingly stressed and stressful world, we need to nurture the healing balm of gardening in the slow lane. A year ago, I decided it was time to go slower in my garden. I vowed to favour unhurried over haste, swap frantic for sedate, and make slow gardening the nemesis of fast. It might […]
Mention wildlife to most gardeners and they will go gooey eyed over hedgehogs, Jenny wrens and thrushes. However, their survival relies on complex food webs involving creatures that gardeners aren’t quite a keen on! Hedgehogs, for instance, have small mouths and a snout, so their preferred foods during the summer months are beetles, caterpillars and […]
