In northern parts of America greenhouse owners are just now starting tomato plants from seed ready for the new season. Under lights on the heat mat I have some fifteen varieties growing. These will be transplanted into larger pots until they are ready for my garden and the gardens of friends. But often tomato varieties […]
For greenhouse owners and gardeners in the Carolinas and Georgia, here is some disturbing news: Some tomato plants in Beaufort County, South Carolina, have recently been infected with late blight disease, the same highly infectious scourge that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Tomatoes and potatoes are related species, both belonging to the […]
April is an ideal time to lift and divide bamboos, grasses and clumps of herbs that have grown too large, this keeps them within their allotted space and maintains vigour. Divide them carefully by pushing two forks back to back into the centre of the clump then pushing the two handles together to prise them […]
Self-seeders are nature’s great opportunists – but earth-friendly gardening can improve their odds.
I had an interesting childhood in multicultural London and I was the only girl for all the other family members of my own age were chaps, either brothers or cousins. It has had its advantages. I know all the fielding positions in cricket and I can explain the off-side rule in football. In fact I’ll […]
Gardening is good for the soul, everybody says so, but greenhouse gardening is the equivalent of a luxury spa treatment for you and your plants, where you are cosseted against the worst of the weather. A cool spring day, one that makes you tighten your scarf and shudder, suddenly becomes thoroughly pleasant. No wonder I […]
You don’t need pesticides to keep your garden and greenhouse healthy, says Jean Vernon. Here are ten great ways to deal with garden pests without using poisons. Last month I outlined ten reasons not to use pesticides in your greenhouse and garden. So I thought it would be useful to provide ten ways to deal […]
The greenhouse isn’t just handy for heat and protection from the elements; this year I am using it as protection from pests too, like a massive environmesh tent. Once upon a time I used to grow lots of lilies. They were a favourite and a regular. I was a sucker for a properly heady scent, […]
Add the frosty nights of late February to soil that’s still sodden after the winter rain and it may not be until the middle of the month that the soil in your vegetable garden is warm enough to sow early crops. However, this should not stop you from preparing the seedbed, by raking the ground […]
A cool frost free glasshouse is perfect for this house plant from the Mediterranean loved since Classical times. Cyclamen is the original Greek, name for this genus of a dozen or so native to Europe and North Africa. One of the Primrose family these have bulbous corm like tubers, masses of remarkably attractive variegated leaves, […]
I have it on good authority that I have “too many hellebores” because Bob Brown (a nurseryman with a strong resemblance to Father Christmas) told me so the last time he came to my garden. I tend to agree, although I didn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that. I’ve acquired more since – of […]
Surely it’s too much to hope that carnivorous plants – which grow in sphagnum bogs – could be grown without peat? No: dream on… Every once in a while, the dreams that so much of our gardening springs from come true. This abysmal, wonky winter, where I’m lashed almost daily by iced rain, and jostled […]
