When you’re obsessed with plants, as I definitely am, there’s a tendency to want to grow as many different things as you cram in. You see something lovely and then you take it home, like a trophy. Your Best Beloved ruins it by saying – where’s that going to go. And one day, ladies, he […]
Harvest time is here in my garden, and the plants that were nurtured in the greenhouse during the chilly, uncertain spring months are finally coming into their own. My produce has been a little slow in coming this year, which I can blame on the cool, wet summer although I suspect human error had something […]
These days we are constantly told that sugar is bad for us, and yet it exists in nature and sustains many creatures, especially insects. Now I’d be the first to admit I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth, so when the sun ripened fruit is ready to pick, a fair amount never makes it […]
Without a greenhouse this tropical climbing vegetable, Basella, is hardly worth attempting thus it’s little known in the UK though with a plethora of common names indicating worldwide popularity. Vine Spinach, Indian Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Ceylon Spinach, Gambian Spinach, Malabar Nightshade to name but a few. Originally growing wild in much of the East […]
If you’d like to eat new potatoes at Christmas (or earlier), it is time to plant them now, when late season, second early potatoes, stored in temperature-controlled conditions are sent out from late July to early August. They can easily be grown in pots. Stand two or three tubers on a 12.5cm layer of multipurpose […]
In a dangerously overheating world, it’s more important than ever to keep it cool in our gardens and greenhouses. Twenty years ago, my garden was on fire – or, more accurately, my garden-to-be was on fire. When I became keeper of this then bracken-riddled bank, I was on a new and exciting learning curve. I never imagined […]
Many greenhouse plants are poisonous so one always needs be vigilant if children visit. And particularly with seeds of the pretty Castor Oil plant, Ricinus communis, from the Euphorbia family. Though the foliage and flowers are poisonous these seeds are extremely toxic. Once known as Palma Christi the seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs, […]
You can’t have failed to notice the change in the weather due to climate change. Last summer a lot of my garden frazzled in the dry heat and I didn’t feel that I could water it due to the drought. It recovered again in September, once we had rain, and then we seemed to get […]
Imagine if we could bottle or preserve the spirit of summer and then return to it in the depths of winter, when we yearn for its presence. It’s not just about the taste and flavour of summer raised ingredients, though that in itself will lift your spirits. There is also the flavour of fragrance. A […]
The greenhouse is full to bursting at the moment with tomatoes coming into fruit, peppers still thinking about making fruits but looking very happy and healthy as they do, as well as a couple of cucumbers, a melon and lots of basil plants, created from buying one supermarket pot and splitting it, to make a […]
Once tomatoes have set their fourth or fifth truss of fruit, cut off the main stem one leaf above the terminal truss, so the moisture and nutrients are focussed on swelling and ripening the fruit. Tap the open flowers around mid-day when the pollen is dry to encourage further pollination and tie the stems to […]
It’s one of the joys of having your own greenhouse. You can use it to propagate your own plants. You might think it’s all about saving money and, in these straitened times, that’s a definite consideration. However, raising plants from cuttings is far more than a financial matter. There’s a certain excitement and satisfaction to […]
