Solar technology is developing apace – but that’s not without controversy. For friction-free, life-enriching solar power, think no-tech – and look no further than your garden. I’m in my greenhouse, cheeks warmed by spring sunshine: calm, relaxed – smug, even. Beyond the glass, the sun at large is sending society into a bad-tempered frenzy; argy-bargy […]
Have we been brainwashed into keeping a monoculture of high maintenance grass plants across a huge area of our garden, asks Jean Vernon? I’ll let you into a little secret. I don’t have a lawn. That’s rather ironic, as for many years I tested lawnmowers for The Daily Telegraph. That was possibly one of the […]
This’s more a curious, architectural greenhouse foliage plant than a spectacular floral display. Although these cute flowers last for many weeks they’re not impressive compared to their sister bulbs, the rose red Blood Lilies, Haemanthus coccineus for this is H. albiflos, a white flowered species. Hailing from South Africa these members of the Amaryllis family […]
April is the greenhouse gardener’s busiest month, and for good reason, the days are lengthening, temperatures are rising, and the window for getting key crops started is firmly open. Get the timing right now and you’ll be harvesting well into autumn, leave it too late and you’ll spend the season playing catch-up. Here’s how I’m […]
It’s warming up in Rhode Island, but the wind is still very cold off the ocean because the ocean water is only about 43°F (6°C) in late April. This cold early springtime breeze keeps my garden temperature roughly two weeks behind inland areas. To counter this issue, I start most seeds in my basement and […]
Joan Loraine gardened at Greencombe close to Porlock in Somerset for over fifty years. The garden is well-named because it’s sandwiched between the Bristol Channel, which is barely half a mile away, and wooded slopes that “tumble between high Exmoor and the sea” to use Joan’s exact words. As a result, Greencombe’s sheltered from the […]
Sow broad beans, spinach, cabbage, calabrese, kohlrabi, cauliflower, lettuce, peas for pods and shoots, onions, salad onions, turnip, radish, beetroot, leeks, leaf beat and chard under glass in pots or modules for later transplanting outdoors. Sow bunching onions, beetroot and round rooted carrots in pots for later transplanting outdoors. From the middle of the month […]
With the price – and the cost – of oil overshadowing global politics, the need to break our gardens’ dependence on it is more urgent than ever. Imagine it: drops of black, oily rain pattering down onto your greenhouse roof, congealing, blocking out the sun. Outdoors, your plants coated in the same foul-smelling, hellish precipitation. […]
Having a wide-ranging collection of gardening books amassed over the decades of my writing career often provides me with ideas for this column and always gives me a lift when gardening gets tough. In those moments, my library reminds me that whatever the problem/pleasure/trend is in the world of the garden, it has all been […]
Here in New England, snow from the recent record-breaking storm is being washed away by torrential rain as I write this. Most nights still have frost, but the dreaded nighttime temperatures in the teens (oF) seem over. Although it’s still too cold and wet to work in the garden, it’s time to start plants so […]
After such a wet start to the season here in the UK you might wonder why my focus this month is on water. It’s a reminder about this precious resource. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be revered. In living memory, the human race has poisoned, polluted and disregarded the water of the planet. Even in […]
I have been writing about gardens and plants for over 30 years and, when I started, most garden writing was purely practical. Writers explained how to grow it, where to plant it and, typically, you’d get dig a hole one foot deep in a sunny place and then do this and that. It made me […]
