It is important to ‘harden off’ or acclimatising greenhouse grown plants to outdoor conditions before finally planting them out. Move them straight from greenhouse to garden and they can suffer from shock, particularly in cooler weather; most recover but it checks growth, causes yellowing and some vegetables may ‘bolt’ or run to seed. ‘Hardening off’ […]
Even for an experienced composter, unearthing an old heap can offer a salutary refresher course in the need to treat ‘compostable’ claims with caution. I never imagined I would see this pair of Y-fronts again. They should be long gone by now, the threadbare organic cotton rotted away, disintegrated beyond recognition into crumbs of dark, […]
I know! I admit that I have too many plant passions for my own good. It begins with snowdrops, goes on to hellebores and then there are my hardy ferns, erythroniums and trilliums. Once summer arrives, it’s peonies, roses and phloxes all the way, and then my beloved dahlias take up the baton. Weather permitting, […]
It is not too late to use your greenhouse to force some early strawberries. There have of course been strawberries in the supermarkets all winter long, but these are grown in much warmer parts of the world, often with supplementary lights and heating, and then flown to us, coming with a huge carbon footprint and […]
The magic of seeds never fails to bring a smile to my face. What could be more exciting and wonderful than watching a dried-up speck start to sprout and root and begin its life as a plant? It’s a process I can watch and enjoy again and again. It’s simple, it’s nature at her very […]
An excellent talking point for your greenhouse or conservatory is the delightfully, well accurately, named Scurvy grass, Cochlearia officinalis. Here the clue definitely lies in the names. The spoon shaped (Cochlear in Greek) leaves deliver massive doses of Vitamin C and really can cure Scurvy (a skin disease caused by the lack of this Vitamin). […]
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 […]
Are you impatient for the phase-out of peat, or anxious about its implications for your garden and greenhouse? With the right advice, we can all look forward to a peat-free future. Peat-based compost – along with the ecological destruction that follows in its wake – is in the departure lounge. There is no turning back. […]
I used to live in a wonderful village in Oxfordshire, Hook Norton. One of my great friends, gone and sadly missed, was a farmer who was born and bred there. At this time of year David used to say, “spring is just around the corner Val. The trouble is it’s a bl***y long corner.” This […]
A few years ago I moved my dwarf nectarine into the greenhouse, and it is at this moment in the year that I am glad I did. My nectarine is a dwarf variety, and has lived in a pot out of doors for many years, and so I am lucky that it is moveable. It […]
If you are worried about the lack of fresh food in the shops, it’s time to rethink your take on salads and look a bit closer at what is growing in and around your garden and greenhouse. Beat the fresh veg shortage by using some alternative salad ingredients instead. I’ve never been a great fan […]
It’s a good time to repot citrus just before they start into growth. To keep my lemon tree at a manageable size, the old compost is teased gently from the roots, which are then trimmed back by about 1/3 and repotted into peat free John Innes no 2 mixed with 20% horticultural grit for drainage. […]
