I recently wrote that for a glasshouse watercress was the most nutritious crop you could grow, and that still stands. However the huge productive capacity under cover can be more efficiently harnessed to produce even more healthy nutrition. And a very succulent, delicious and tasty increase this is; from growing baby salad leaves. You see […]
Dear Weather, please can you consider the date and change from your April angst to something more akin to the month of May flowers. Thank you. The soil is still cold from rainfall and frosty nights, so greenhouse sowings in pots and modules, over the previous weeks will be well rewarded. Outdoors, once the soil […]
The peat-free message is finally being broadcast far and wide – but it’s gardeners and growers, rather than the gardening media, who are doing the telling.
I’ve been on a bit of a healthy eating binge these last few weeks. It probably started after a pretty nasty illness I picked up on my travels, which left me particularly under the weather. Having wasted away for a few weeks (! Yes really), and then left craving for sugar and sweet things, I […]
Walls, terraces, paths, steps, soil, compost, wildlife habitats… second-hand and spoil heap slate can give you the makings of an entire garden. Bar the dreaming and hard graft, my garden owes its existence to an ancient and, given its dour demeanour, quite magical ingredient. It’s very tangible, and it’s very heavy. Its straight lines run […]
There is an easier middle way between the effort of traditional composting and the specialised requirements of a wormery: invite the worms into your regular bin, and let them do the work. Of all the ongoing experiments and trials in my garden, the longest-running, most revealing and ultimately most fruitful are those around compost-making. I’m […]
Moles are often seen as little more than pests by green-fingered enthusiasts – and there certainly are a wide range of reasons for this. The subterranean creatures burrow lawns and raise mole hills, which can undermine plant roots and inadvertently cause damage or death. However, gardening expert Roger Mercer has argued that mole populations are […]
In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]
Colour is such a personal thing and most of us have a favourite. Mine of course is orange and it’s the choice of an exuberant Leo lady. You see I was born on the hottest day of the year, in July, and my mother never let me forget it. I’m unusual I know, for orange […]
It is time to deck my halls and I have found myself foraging in the greenhouse for materials. Of course there are a couple of rules to the making of a wreath, and one of those is that the majority of it must be made of evergreens, and you wont find any of those in […]
