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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

It’s a good time to repot citrus just before they start into growth. To keep my lemon tree at a manageable size, I tease the old compost gently from the roots, which are then trimmed back by about 1/3 and re-potted into peat free John Innes no 2 mixed with 20% horticultural grit for drainage. […]

There are two new greenhouse herbs that are often confused, both relatively unknown a few decades ago now becoming popular. Their confusion is quite understandable as both are from the New World, both in the Apiaceae family, both much used in West Indian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Costa Rican and South American dishes with almost similar […]

March in the greenhouse is a month when things start moving. The light has changed, and though nights still carry a chill, a little warmth now gathers under the glass by day. It is at this hinge of the seasons that fruit grown under glass begins to stir in earnest. Buds swell along trained branches, […]

On dull days – and in dark times – snowdrops never fail to lift the spirits. Plant, sow, divide and share them, and light up Februarys to come!   Envy alert: I’ve had a fabulous February. We’ve been blessed with an unusually dry January and February here in North Wales, though we haven’t escaped a […]