There’s a lot of unnecessary myth and magic about making garden compost says Jean Vernon First let’s unravel the confusion between the compost that you buy in bags for container plants and growing seeds. This, the trade, is called growing medium and is basically specially formulated to a precise recipe with a variety of ingredients, […]
I once received a breezy Christmas letter with the advice— “Everyone should take their family to the Galapagos.” I fell out laughing. Really? Everyone? What would the Galapagos look like then? And yet, when I walk into the garden of Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne, I understand that letter writer’s impulse. Everyone should see this acre-and-a […]
Plastic-free gardening is an admirable aim, but before we rush headlong down any of the alternative routes, we need to check for pitfalls. As much as gardening is about going forward – at full throttle at this time of year – sometimes it’s also about stepping back. As we champ at the bit to launch […]
There’s one plant I really look forward to in May and that’s the tall, statuesque allium, because they provide strong verticals, round or drumstick heads and vibrant colour. They’re versatile too, because these tall early-summer alliums look equally at home in the vegetable garden, or the flower border, and you can create your own river […]
A conservatory or greenhouse can be a heavenly – and heavily – scented environment when crammed full with perfumed flowers like jasmine, citrus, and countless other plants that hold fragrance in their petals and foliage. Pot pourri is an amalgam of plant parts preserved by drying and blending that will conserve the scent of garden […]
One of the greenhouse crops that I have never quite cracked is aubergines. Perhaps they just need more than I’ve got: time to get them going early enough; patience and light to nurse them through late spring indoors; and then heat in the summer. Obviously with the eternal optimism of the gardener I am fairly […]
The lovely thing about sowing annual flowers from seed is that there’s such as wide choice of colors and varieties. The sad thing is that in my Chicago climate, seeds sowed after the last average frost date, while the soil is still cool, will take weeks to sprout and get going. There isn’t enough time […]
The glasshouse flower if you need bloom almost any month of the year the Poppy Anemones should be more commonly grown as these are also so useful for cut flowers. Anemone coronaria is the original wild species native to the Mediterranean region and this makes it more tender than most other species many of which […]
From now on my monthly tips are going to focus on what to do in the greenhouse, so let’s start with a few tips what to look for when buying a greenhouse. Buy the largest you can afford and leave space for expansion because however large your glasshouse, it will never be large enough! It […]
In a moment of madness, on a very wet January day in London, I went hurtling over an uneven pavement and broke my left arm in three places. I was on my way to a delicious Italian lunch, courtesy of one of my editors, which of course I never got. The good news is I’m […]
For successful, stress-free sowing with no ecological cost, work to nature’s timetable and let the sun supply the power. It’s here. The frogs know it; they’re back – defrosted after a few false starts – with an orgiastic vengeance. The dandelions know it; their patient rosettes are pushing up yellow-hinted buds. Nature all around knows […]
The weather forecast was foreboding, with the third major winter storm in two weeks about to hit the northeast. But the blinding snow and lashing winds that my Amtrak train hurtled through on its way to Philadelphia belied the beautiful, springtime ambiance awaiting me inside the 2018 Philadelphia Flower Show. This premier horticultural event, presented […]
