It might seem an odd topic for this month’s Bean Feast, but unless there’s a problem rain doesn’t actually fall inside a greenhouse. This means that despite the recent deluge, your greenhouse plants (and mine) still need some of the wet stuff to keep them growing and that’s the topical topic for this month’s Bean […]

There’s no need to buy solutions to pest problems that nature can solve for us. The only real problem is how to sell this idea.

In the summer after finishing horticultural college I worked on a new herb garden on a hilltop near Sienna. Sounds gorgeous, eh? But the trouble with a new garden is the trees have not yet grown, and the trouble with Italy in the summer is it is really quite hot. No shade, on a parched […]

When it’s potting and planting time in the greenhouse the very act of labelling every single pot can almost seem to double the workload. But every gardener, well unless they’ve got a memory of a database, needs to keep records of some sort. It’s not about being obsessive; it’s about keeping note of good doers, […]

Removing faded flowers or ‘dead heading’, (see image) is a wonderful job for a late spring day, it extends the flowering season of annuals, hanging basket plants like Pelargonium’s, herbaceous plants – even shrubs, where it’s practical and is vital for sweet peas, which stop flowering if they are allowed to produce seed. Cutting bunches […]

Few crops so require a greenhouse as melons. True seedsmen do sell varieties that may in a very good summer crop outdoors, but most years the results are rather disappointing.  Come under cover though and truly amazing melons can be had of a size, sweetness and aroma far exceeding any sold commercially. The main reason […]

Make do and mend, learn to do without, pull your socks up and get stuck in: it’s time to cultivate some old-fashioned values in the garden.

Growing your own produce is second nature to a united society of gardeners, most of whom have a greenhouse as the top tool in their gardening kit. There’s not much point in growing your own food if you can’t trial a few new things, try something different and grow what you want. Generally growing from […]

‘Hardening off’ is the process of acclimatising plants which have been grown indoors, until they become robust enough to grow outdoors for the summer like bedding plants, ornamental or vegetable seedlings propagated in the greenhouse and tender or half hardy plants, like Fuschias and dahlias, which have been protected through the winter. It usually takes […]

I’m trying to think back to how many aubergines I have grown in my life. I dont mean plants – there have been a great many of them – but actual aubergine fruits, fully matured and ready for roasting to a delicious savoury gooeyness with crispy edges. I do recall one that got pretty close […]

Many of our most colourful and useful greenhouse and conservatory plants are Begonias. Though wandering through a botanic collection most of us might not realise just how many different plants were in fact all Begonias. For this is an immense tribe with many origins, sizes, shapes and habits, and an even more confusing collection of […]

With hosepipe bans now in place in many areas, we all need to start tapping into a more joined-up kind of gardening.