When the climate crisis took hold, the effects on gardening were devastating. Thankfully, technological innovation is allowing us to get growing again. ‘Just imagine what this kind of weather did to greenhouses in the late 2020s,’ shouted Cally over the thunderous din. Unlike the group she was guiding, she didn’t flinch as 3in-wide hellstones – or hailstones, […]

Growing plants and having a nice garden is within reach for everyone says Jean Vernon. You don’t need to be an expert gardener to have a nice garden. In fact the best way to learn is to have a go. But there are some simple basic things about plants and gardens that it is helpful […]

Every greenhouse gardener needs a good compost in order to raise seeds and plants, but in recent years it’s been very difficult to find a good compost that’s consistent in quality. Historically price mattered more than anything else, so it was quite possible to buy a good bag of something one week and then get […]

I have never been a great collector of things or of plants – some people have the attention to detail and the tenacity and some do not, and I fall squarely into the latter category. But it struck me recently that I have made a collection of pelargoniums. To proper plant aficionados that may seem […]

You need a warm greenhouse or conservatory to grow Wax plants successfully. Not surprisingly as these originate in the tropical Far East. The first, Hoya carnosa, was introduced to the UK from Java in 1802 and proved an immediate success. In the next fifty years another two dozen species were collected but none ever challenged […]

Iris is my middle name and I hated the name when I was a child. It was chosen, along with the dreaded Valerie, by my elder brother to compensate for my mother denying him the privilege of being an only child. You see he is about eight years older than I am, so he was […]

A green energy byproduct that allows compost to be revitalised and reused offers a potential pathway to a future beyond peat. Out of all the new stuff that’s appeared on the gardening block in the last few years, plant-derived digestate – the fibrous, chopped-up remains of forage maize and other grasses that have been fed […]

I always have a bit of a conundrum at this time of year in the greenhouse. The plants are really growing away strongly now and tomatoes and aubergines are forming (no melons yet though…). But holidays hove into view. Holidays and greenhouses really don’t mix particularly well. At this time of year greenhouse plants want […]

Caterpillars get a bad press, especially with gardeners. But if you placed a butterfly in front of a gardener and told them to kill it, would they or could they? Well …. I hope not It’s time to fall in love with caterpillars. But first you need to understand a bit about them. Caterpillars are […]

Tapping into the interconnected mycological web beneath our feet lets us make allies of the myriad fungi in our gardens. Not many books – a mere third of the way through reading them – have me dashing excitedly out into my garden. But that’s exactly the effect that Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and […]

One of the easiest and most exotic of all greenhouse flowers this is sadly not a good choice for those who must work 9-5. You see, or rather you won’t see, the fantastical blooms, which open in the morning and close and die that afternoon, really remarkably soon come and gone. This unfortunate habit is […]