It is interesting how different each year can be. In 2023, I had no problems with red spider mite, whitefly, or blossom end rot on the tomatoes; I cannot recall when that last happened, or if it has ever happened at all. It is down to a cool summer where temperatures have been warm enough […]
Compost fodder, plant support, greenhouse shading, mulching material, soil enricher, winter fuel, garden screen, wildlife haven… there’s no end to the potential of the versatile willow. Our first stormy autumn night didn’t disappoint: warm, lashing rain, high, cottage-shaking winds and two mini power cuts – then a proper time-for-bed blackout. My head torch-illuminated check outdoors […]
I am delighted to say that I have a new Hartley Greenhouse, a Wisley Grow and Store, to play with. It joins an older Hartley Greenhouse that’s now twelve years old – but still as good as new. My new addition’s a gardener’s Greenhouse with full-length glass and staging and I’m going to grow seeds, […]
Among the many seeds we sowed in the greenhouse this spring was a selection of annual climbers. They have taken their time to get going, perhaps owing to being sown a little later than ideal, I have to admit, but I think some of the blame can be laid at the door of this gloomy […]
With the fruit trees laden with apples, it’s time to harvest, store and appreciate this humble fruit. Some years are better than others for different garden fruits and this year my apple trees are loaded with large juicy fruits. I’ve never seen such huge apples hanging from the branches and have to assume that the […]
Gourmet cooks with a greenhouse will already appreciate how growing herbs in the hotter drier conditions improves their strength and flavour. Many if not most grow Basil knowing how wonderfully flavoured this is fresh compared to the modicum left after preservation. You just cannot capture the essence. Which is why cooks also need to grow […]
With it is warm and sunny, sow trays, pots or old growing bags with ‘cut and come again crops’ to harvest through autumn and into winter like Land cress, oriental salads, like pak choi, mizuna and mibuna greens, lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, carrots for seedlings, chicory and radish. You can also use what’s left from earlier […]
Our greenhouses are transformative, regenerative and infinitely renewable. Imagine what could happen – for people, nature and planet – if we truly embraced that potential. What if we started thinking outside of our greenhouses – the gardening equivalent of thinking outside the box? What if we could muster our collective, sun-fuelled growing power to help […]
When you’re obsessed with plants, as I definitely am, there’s a tendency to want to grow as many different things as you cram in. You see something lovely and then you take it home, like a trophy. Your Best Beloved ruins it by saying – where’s that going to go. And one day, ladies, he […]
Harvest time is here in my garden, and the plants that were nurtured in the greenhouse during the chilly, uncertain spring months are finally coming into their own. My produce has been a little slow in coming this year, which I can blame on the cool, wet summer although I suspect human error had something […]
These days we are constantly told that sugar is bad for us, and yet it exists in nature and sustains many creatures, especially insects. Now I’d be the first to admit I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth, so when the sun ripened fruit is ready to pick, a fair amount never makes it […]
Without a greenhouse this tropical climbing vegetable, Basella, is hardly worth attempting thus it’s little known in the UK though with a plethora of common names indicating worldwide popularity. Vine Spinach, Indian Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Ceylon Spinach, Gambian Spinach, Malabar Nightshade to name but a few. Originally growing wild in much of the East […]
