Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

Written in United Kingdom

Growing heritage edibles – One of 2024ā€™s biggest Greenhouse trends

At Hartley Botanic, we believe that growing edibles from heritage seeds is one of the biggest trends amongst Greenhouse owners this year. Interest in heritage, edible varieties, some of which can be traced back to as early as the 1600ā€™s, has been largely driven by the rediscovery of their unbeatable flavours. Often tender crops, requiring […]

Written in United States

Success with Amaryllis in the Greenhouse

Itā€™s bulb season. This will be a two-part column about how to enjoy growing bulbs inside a glasshouse. Most of this advice will also be useful for growing on a sunny windowsill. Next month I will talk about forcing other tender and hardy bulbs indoors. But this month, Iā€™m talking about Amaryllis with Christian Curless, […]

Written in United Kingdom

Carbon catchers

Unlike the costly high-tech carbon capture and storage strategies being proposed to mitigate climate change, tree-planting is free, simple, people-powered ā€“ and proven. Iā€™ve beaten the redwings to it. The crowd has skirted along the edge of the wood and descended on my neighbourā€™s rowans, where theyā€™re now merrily stripping them of their dazzling orange […]

Written in United States

High Plains Environmental Gardening: a user’s guide.

ā€œIf you can read a book, you can do anything.ā€ Short of embroidering it on a cushion, thatā€™s a mantra Iā€™ve lived by since my best friend in high school wised me up. Iā€™ve packed in a lot of reading since then, researching the history of garden design and landscaping for the books Iā€™ve written, […]

Written in United Kingdom

Cephalaphora ā€œof little beauty and easy cultureā€

So why on Earth would you want to grow this in your greenhouse? Well, because this is a living ā€˜pot pourriā€™. A South American relative of Asters itā€™s delightful though as the disparaging quote from Paxtonā€™s Botanical Dictionary suggests itā€™s neither graceful, compact, neat nor colourful. Thus certainly not a centrepiece, nor a background foliage […]

Written in United Kingdom

One man went to mow

Quiet, non-polluting, kind to wildlife, people-powered, earth-friendly: scythes win over strimmers on every count ā€“ but sometimes you need to see to believe. Itā€™s the sound that pulls them in ā€“ the harsh, honing rip of stone against steel isnā€™t an everyday sound here. As soon as I start sharpening, heads start to turn. ā€˜Is […]