I have an exciting new plant for the greenhouse, which I am going to start on starting into growth this week. Gloriosas are beautiful colourful climbing plants, and sometimes known as climbing lilies, though really their flowers are not particularly lily-like. They have extraordinary twisted petals in red and orange and are the national flower […]
The weather can cut up rough at this time of the year, particularly when you live in Cold, Cold Aston as I do. I always say that the clue is in the name! Itās a chilly little spot, perched on a plateau on top of the North Cotswold in an area known as the Empty […]
Why pay the financial and environmental costs of a propagator, when our own well-heated homes offer plenty of ideal places to germinate seeds and nurture seedlings? āSow your seeds and germinate them in a heated propagator atā¦ blah, blah, blah.ā If I had a penny for every time Iāve read or heard this outmoded gardening […]
Never before has it been so important to boost our immunity and keep healthy. Those of us lucky enough to have a garden are blessed not only with the space to grow our own food, but the wherewithal to improve our health and wellbeing. For some just being out in the garden and getting some […]
Sweet cornās not your commonest greenhouse crop but one that benefits hugely, and has imposing foliage. Now the sweetness is the essence of good sweet corn, and is continually reducing from the moment the cobās picked. If youāve grown your own youāll know, cobs from shops or even roadside stalls are never ever as sweet. […]
March usually says āFarewellā to winter and āHelloā to spring, a transition that seems to herald a month of erratic weather. I start sowing outdoors after warming the soil then add a few āback upsāā under glass to fill the gaps if germination is erratic. In northern or cooler locations, you can also start sowing […]
We canāt buy our way out of the plastic problem ā but we can reuse, recycle and share our way toward a more sustainable gardening world. Is gardeningās contribution to our global plastic pollution crisis sorted? Have we ā gardeners and the businesses that profit handsomely from us ā collectively fixed it? Is concern over […]
The cold start to the year has left the greenhouse relatively empty of new inhabitants, as it should be, really, at this time of year. It has been very chilly, a proper winter, and there has even been snow on the roof of the greenhouse some days, but this is all to the good for […]
Itās the most exciting time of all in the garden, because everythingās responding to longer days and warmer temperatures. My Hartley greenhouse is a hive of activity because itās full of seeds about to spring into life. It may be unheated, but it warms up brilliantly well on spring-like days and that encourages earlier germination. […]
Jean Vernon offers her seasonal thoughts on ways to use the garden to survive the ongoing pandemic The garden was a saviour to so many of us last year. It wasnāt just the place to connect with nature, for many of us it was a place to escape from the house, move away from the […]
Itās a real joy to have a greenhouse where you can potter when the rain, snow and waterlogged ground make gardening outdoors impossible. Thankfully, thereās plenty to keep you busy in there and hey, itās not long now until spring. If you lifted and stored your dahlias over winter, encourage them back into growth by […]
Our climate is getting inexorably wetter, but as gardeners we need to learn to think more like our plants. Itās time to start dancing in the rain. When my gardening dreams and I landed here 18 years ago, on what was a bracken-riddled bank, I had no inkling that I was about to embark on […]
