Succession planting in the ornamental garden

You may be familiar with the phrase succession planting from vegetable gardening where it is used to ensure a constant supply of fresh produce, especially for quick summer crops grown from seed. In the ornamental garden we grow fewer annuals - although I will come back to these very useful contributors to the summer borders – and the term succession...

Spring planting and the cold greenhouse

This blog for February gives me the ideal opportunity to discuss best use of the spring planting season and a cold (i.e. unheated greenhouse) if you have one.  Gardening writing, including mine, regularly talks about ‘early spring’ rather than specifying a particular month because the advent of increasing temperatures varies so much from place to place even within south east...

A year of less stuff gardening?

As I was starting to write this blog I read an article by someone who had given away all their belongings and was wandering the world carrying only a rucksack. The idea of giving up any form of long term residence is unlikely to appeal to a gardener but it did make me think about how easy it is to...

How not to kill your Christmas Houseplants

Houseplants make great presents but to ensure that a plant, like a puppy, is not just for Christmas here are a few key tips on buying and looking after plants for yourself or as gifts. The first question is on what and where to buy.  Like buying any plant at any time of year, you want a healthy plant with a...

Fresh air, exercise & leaf mould

I was brought up in a fairly rural village and my mother’s mantra for a healthy childhood seemed to be “fresh air and exercise”.  That suited me pretty well as we children roamed the country lanes on our bicycles (more likely to meet a tractor than a car) and I spent many happy hours in a huge tract of National...