In a garden near you there’s a greenhouse looking for love – and giving it a new home would make your ‘gardening footprint’ a few sizes smaller. “Will you stop peeping?” Joining me for a walk at this time of year sooner or later drives my companions to utter this corrective phrase (or something blunter) as […]

When the seed catalogues start diving through the letterbox you know spring is nearly here. For the avid gardener and plantaholic there is nothing nicer than settling into a comfy chair surrounded by seed catalogues, botanical reference books and a drink of something special, hot chocolate is a good winter choice! Many gardeners have a […]

A bright sunny greenhouse or conservatory position, preferably with a warm wall, is best for this gorgeous twining evergreen climber, for Araujia sericofera, the Cruel Plant, sulks in shade. I have seen it well grown in a generous hanging basket, which helped control it’s vigour as well as keeping it high up in the brightest […]

I dread January; it is often the coldest month of the year, when snow makes its presence felt. If last year, was intent on reminding us that cold winters are not a thing of the past, it worked! (Do double check that you have wrapped your pots in hessian or bubble wrap if snow is […]

I visited the London garden of my friend and fellow writer and blogger Laetitia Maklouf last week, the person I’m going to be when I grow up (and get a bit slimmer and buy some properly fabulous shoes). She is big on sweet peas, being the sort of gal who always has a jug of flowers […]

First it was baby veg; tiny immature carrots, embryonic courgettes, baby beets, weeny turnips and other developing fruits and roots, just barely recognisable. Top class chefs and star studded restaurants lightly steamed these kindergarten crops for the delectation of their clientele, while gardeners struggled with concept of harvesting hard grown crops weeks and sometimes months […]

There’s a hands-on horticultural way to mitigate climate change – but it will only make a real difference if our gardens aren’t also part of the problem.

A delight with any greenhouse or conservatory is to have the air full of that most delicious perfume Jasmine. Also known as (Sweet) Jessamine. Or rather perfumes for there are dozens of species and varieties, some hardy and many others that really need to be under glass. The hardier ones prefer to ramble and given […]

My greenhouse gets pretty gruesome towards the end of the season. Mine had become quite off-puttingly jungly, filled with collapsed stems, rotten tomatoes and a thriving community of snails. So the other morning I poured myself a big, steaming mug of tea (soon with added sprinkling of compost), rolled up my sleeves and had the […]

What – its December already? I can’t believe it!  It seems that time passes more rapidly every year. Perhaps it’s my age – surely not; it’s just that there is so much to do and so little time! November was an extraordinary month, with bouts of unseasonal temperatures, which made it feel like spring. I […]