The greenhouse is bursting with germinating seeds, flourishing seedlings and rooting cuttings. The aroma of spring is saturating every breathful of air and it smells fantastic. Rich, warm and vibrant, spiced with plenty of freshly made oxygen from the thriving plants. Spring is such an animated season in the greenhouse. Every new plant emerging from […]
Even mild winters seem interminably long, so it is great when the first flowers and fresh new shoots appear. For some reason it reminds me of the nonsense rhyme which starts ‘Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies iz’..? When the soil warms up in early spring it is time […]
Instead of giving any more time to the myths about sowing in peat-free composts, put them to the test. You’ll find they do the job as well as peat – without the ecological price-tag. Of all the myths that abound in gardening, the most pernicious are surely those that circle our inevitable but painfully slow […]
Until recently greenhouse pests were fumigated with smoke from smouldering tobacco. For nicotine kills most creatures in addition to long term damage when smoked by us foolish humans. Tobacco is now considered a rather dirty habit but the plants themselves should not be frowned upon. In the flower garden most of us probably know the […]
Since I last wrote here my seed sowing has switched from smugly-ahead-of-time to oh-my-what-have-I-been-doing-with-my-time. Outdoors was so cold and slow back then, all of four weeks ago, and sowing time seemed endless. What happened? Now it’s all green shoots, pink blossom and blue skies and I have moved from leisured to frenzied. I am getting […]
Hartley BeanFeast March 2014 It’s no secret that I’m addicted to bees. I just can’t help talking about nature’s little heroes, or more accurately heroines, at every opportunity. Last week I met a small boy who started asking me very grown-up questions about bees and it made me realise how much bees are taken for […]
Any greenhouse, conservatory or sunny windowsill will be graced by the tropical beauty and perfection of a pot of Jacobean lilies. The flowers are relatively huge reaching saucer or side-plate size and a foot or so high, in richest crimson lightly marked with gold, these first appear in early summer then again through summer. Sprekelia […]
I want to say: ‘It’s February, and it feels like spring is coming!’ but that would be a big, fat lie. Perhaps because we haven’t really had a proper chill all winter, perhaps because the weather is so relentlessly grey and dull, but I can’t quite get past that sense that winter might still come […]
If we made more of our gardens’ huge potential as the first line in flood defence, fewer of us might need to resort to sandbags next time round. With thousands of homes flooded and their gardens submerged, there’s a hollow, ringing futility to recent gardening advice along the lines of ‘use a board to get […]
Hartley Bean Feast Feb 2014 I’m working on a pea feast for early spring. Well peas and broad beans, the hardy stalwarts for GYO enthusiasts and actually a delicious choice that is so easy to grow it should be compulsory. Despite the fiddly depodding process, the taste of freshly picked peas completely makes up for […]
January has been the wettest on record, February can be the coldest (hopefully not!) but at least it is the shortest and heralds the spring. Once the first snowdrops appear, I feel that the growing season has begun! Snowdrops are often lifted after flowering and sold ‘in the green’, if you bought some, replant them […]
A Parrot plant will be the most fascinating display in your greenhouse or conservatory. It will, if grown well be most impressive and flamboyant. Even grown badly it will still be curious and interesting. For this is one of those quirks of nature. Each waxy almost plastic bloom is gorgeous with a firm body of […]
