Created by Olivier Blanc & Charlotte Salt, Henri Le Worm aims to remind children where food comes from and the important role that nature plays in its production. Henri encourages children to engage with food and nature in a fun and playful way. In the App “Henri Le Worm – The Missing Cookbook,” children are […]
As soon as The Chelsea Flower Show closes its doors to the public on Saturday 28 May, the work of disassembling the beautiful gardens, trade stands and horticultural displays begins. The Main Avenue Hartley Botanic Show Garden takes more than three weeks to construct and lovingly plant but only a few days to disassemble. Hartley […]
The Hartley Botanic Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 – Introducing Opus Hartley Botanic has been exhibiting beautifully planted trade stands at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for close to sixty years, but for 2016, MD Johnny Mobasher is taking it to another level with a Main Avenue show garden designed by Catherine […]
Greenhouse tomato crops are bigger and better thanks to buzz pollination. Don’t take your tomato crop for granted. Every single fruit that forms needs a pollinator catalyst. The words Buzz and bees go hand in hand. But did you know that bumblebees perform something called Buzz Pollination that is vital for the way that they […]
The garden is a work in progress, well more work than progress if I’m honest, but I slid into summer a few days ago when I cut most of my tulips back in my rose and peony beds and planted several different cosmos I’d raised in 4 x 6 modular trays. The change was remarkable […]
Now that greenhouse tomatoes are growing well, remove the side shoots of ‘cordon’ varieties, as they appear, using your finger and thumb, this will create a single productive stem. Keep the compost constantly moist, particularly if you are using growing bags, as the compost dries out rapidly; twice a day is ideal, depending on the […]
This flower is seldom grown in glass-houses. It’s a hardy annual now seldom grown anywhere else, save by children who sow it in some ‘easy’ mix. However it will be recognised by nostalgic and knowing gardeners with a love for perfume. For this is a plant grown solely for it’s divine floral scent, such a […]
With spring in the air it’s a wonderful time to be outdoors. A few days of sunshine reminds us that the hills and vales, the meadows, woodlands, parks and especially our gardens are precious habitats for wildlife. Whether it’s the birds singing in the hedgerow, the bumblebees nesting in the compost heap or the frogs […]
Today Hartley Botanic received a very special RHS medal for their first ever show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Winning any medal is great, but the garden designed by Catherine MacDonald was deemed to be special enough for silver gilt, just one notch down from a gold! The garden features Opus, a newly […]
It’s an important summer season for Hartley Botanic! They have been regular exhibitors at the most important flower show in the world, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, for decades, but 2016 will be their very 1st foray onto Main Avenue with a full show garden. The garden has been designed by the very talented Catherine […]
Perhaps my favourite greenhouse job of the year is releasing the contents of my mini greenhouse into the wider garden. Fly, my pretties, fly! The mini greenhouse receives a tiny bit of heat through the winter, just a low constant from a propagating mat, and this allows me to overwinter some of my favourite plants: […]
I’ve always been interested in bees and thirty years ago I took part in a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) study in an attempt to map their presence. I was a lot younger then and I sprinted over walls and chased up and down dale trying to find their nests in rural Northamptonshire, with limited success. […]
