Cacti and succulents are plants with thick, fleshy stems and leaves that have evolved to store water in dry climates. In recent years, they have become enormously popular for house plants. You see them for sale everywhere, including most big-box stores. Some of the most common varieties are aloe plants, jade plants, sempervivum, kalanchoes, agaves, […]
The power of plants has been instrumental in the evolution of man for centuries. Plants play a vital role for our food, our medicine, our health and our wellbeing, both physical and mental. Plants have the power to feed us, to feed our livestock and also to feed other plants. Plant protein has become a […]
I’ve been asked which greenhouse plant is top of the GYO essential list, practical, productive, with the most outstanding nutritional value? Unfortunately this would be trays of kale and watercress. However also high in the ranking is a little grown relative of tomatoes that I featured here a decade ago. Still not widely known the […]
With the rush to grow edibles at home this summer, your painstaking efforts with garden stars like tomatoes or corn may mean that easy-care herbs could be overlooked. And yet, herbs can bring joy to your table, enliven your self-care routine, or enhance your gift giving. And many will continue to do that year in […]
Keeping seed-gathering and sowing close to home reduces gardening miles to footsteps – and results only in joy. This spring, one coy flower, above all others, brought me an untrammelled and deeply satisfying joy that endured for weeks on end. It wasn’t just the early dash of pink and blue it added to my borders […]
Sow Fennel, oriental vegetables like mizuna greens and Pak Choi, rocket, coriander dill, spinach, claytonia and land cress, in modules as soon as you can in August. These will germinate quickly and can be planted out by mid-August for cropping in Autumn. Continue sowing ‘cut and come again’ crops like mixed herbs, in pots, greenhouse […]
I was strolling (properly masked) through my neighborhood on a recent afternoon when I spotted a flower in a front-yard garden that swept me into one of those wave-of-memory moments. It was Gaillardia pulchella, the plant my mother grew up calling Indian blanket, its cheery red daisylike flowers rimmed with bright yellow. It threw me […]
The beefsteak tomatoes have started ripening in the greenhouse, the most delicious crop of the year. I could survive all of late summer just on beefsteak tomatoes, a bit of salt and olive oil, and hunks of bread to mop up the juices, and by the way the greenhouse is looking now I most probably […]
I had rather a large birthday recently, the sort you want to keep a deep, dark secret! I’ve seen a variety of gardening styles and, although I’m not quite old enough to remember Dig for Victory, I do remember the self-sufficient gardens of the 1950s, the low-maintenance shrub gardens of the 1960s, the conifers of […]
“Don’t sweat the small stuff,” but do pay attention to it. In this time of pandemic, when even our commonest gestures must be made with care, my focus has been put into sharp detail on the treasure to be found in the smallest package. I begin with my grandson, turning seven months as I write […]
As the climate crisis escalates, 40°C heat alerts are becoming a regular event – and that’s before you’ve factored in the midsummer frosts and greenhouse-shattering storms. Dry, rustling leaves roused Lena from her heat-induced snooze; the thick, clammy air was finally on the move. Yawning, she pressed her back against the oak’s trunk, her legs […]
HISTORIC GLASSHOUSE MANUFACTURER HARTLEY BOTANIC ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS Historic Glasshouse and Greenhouse manufacturer Hartley Botanic experienced a renewed demand from homeowners in its beautiful, handmade Greenhouses during lockdown, as the benefit of being more self-sufficient and ‘growing your own’ was thrown sharply into focus. The Lancashire-based business, which has been operating since 1938, experienced a […]
