Hartley Magazine

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

Written in United Kingdom

Fantastic foliage from a cocoyam?

Surprisingly there are several tropical root-crop plants well suited to frost free or better warm glasshouses. Probably the best value are Colocasias as many of the same family are already valued glasshouse specimens. Sold in Ethnic shops and some supermarkets these are known as Cocoyams in Africa, Taro in the Far East, Dasheen or Eddoes […]

Written in United States

Plants for the Beginning Greenhouse Gardener

If youā€™ve just acquired a new greenhouse, what plants should you choose for it? This can be a tough decision for beginning greenhouse gardeners because of the great diversity of options available. The best approach may be to actually embrace that diversity. By this I mean picking one or two varieties from major categories of […]

Written in United Kingdom

Iā€™m dreaming of aā€¦

ā€¦ green gardening Christmas ā€“ and a more climate crisis-aware gardening world in 2021. Change arrives at a snailā€™s pace in the wonderful world of gardening ā€“ even when our fragile natural world is undergoing its own profound and irreversible change. But if ever an entwined community of folk needed to change, itā€™s this one […]

Written in United Kingdom

The Laissez Faire Gardener

When I started gardening, in the 1960s, the first thing I did was a parks and gardens inspired rose border containing twelve leggy hybrid teas of different colours. These unhealthy beasts lost most of their foliage by midsummer and they all flowered at slightly different times and at slightly different heights. However, my biggest crime […]