Now May has arrived, let’s hope that the weather has settled down, even though there is a mix of displays in the garden and time for some late daffodils! Early May is a good time to plant up hanging baskets. Always buy your plants from a reputable supplier, with a wide choice of varieties, that […]
In the mid-20th century the pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson warned of a ‘silent spring’. Today it’s only our elder gardeners who can remember ‘spring’ at all.
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It’s been a really really tough time for all insects, good and bad. This long cold winter has bee especially bad for the bees, not just honeybees and bumble bees but the solitary bees too. Imagine enduring the long cold winter to be confronted by the coldest March for decades and then finding little in […]
The Chelsea Flower Show Press Release 2013
I love gardens, but I’m not much of a gardener. I enjoy caring for plants, but I’m even happier sitting in my outdoor space, just relaxing. Breakfast in the garden on a sunny day is one of my favourite treats. However, we’ve just moved into a new house with a garden 3 times bigger than […]
No one ever could have predicted that March would end up as it did – certainly not me! All of last month’s optimism, about it ‘coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb’, totally demolished by a avalanche of snow and sub zero temperatures. The beginning of April looks like it will […]
These are amongst the most elegant of all greenhouse flowers. Almost perfectly designed for cutting Japanese roses will keep fresh at least a fortnight even three weeks. Indeed if these were just that bit easier to start off we all would have them. I must admit they’re a little on the awkward side with a […]
The insidious effects of neonic insecticides are leaving bees and other beneficial insects with no safe place to go. There’s still hope of rescue – but it will only happen with our help. Any day now I’ll hear a low buzz and a dull bumping on the glass out in my greenhouse. That’s my cue […]
I wish I could get excited about seed sowing, like you do. When all the proper gardeners start leaping around like little spring lambs, I turn sulky and reluctant. Maybe I’ve been secretly enjoying this long, cold winter because it has put off the time when I have to go out to the greenhouse and […]
I’ve always been a bit of a fan of weird and wonderful food plants. I love to forage in the woodland and hedgerows for ingredients to transform our diet and am fascinated by the food plants still used by native civilisations. Quinoa, amaranth, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, chillies and many more valuable crops were brought to […]
It’s the beginning of March and according to Peter Gibbs, BBC weatherman and gardening enthusiast, the cold, grey weather will be with us for a little while. There is a great temptation to rush out and start seed sowing at the first signs of sunshine, which will surely come. After a cold wet winter, it […]
