A mixed basket is used to display a variety of flowering and foliage plants when they are at their best. It is important to group plants with colours and leaf textures which complement one another and which have similar growing conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
Indoor window boxes are an effective way of brightening up a plain window or, in fact, any area of your home. For year-round colour choose flowering perennials such as African violets and combine them with other foliage plants that require the same growing conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
This ‘fridge garden‘ can be planted using cuttings from almost any house plant. These temporary miniatures are a fun alternative to more traditional house plants and are useful where space is limited (do not use glass containers if you have small children). Read the rest of this entry »
Some people seem to grow their vegetables all mixed up together, while others keep them separate — sometimes even in special, built-up beds. What is the best method?
There are different ways of planting vegetables. You can dig over the entire site and then sow all the various vegetables in blocks of different sizes (depending on how many you need of each kind) with no clearly marked space between them. Read the rest of this entry »
I can’t make up my mind — will growing my own vegetables really be worthwhile?
This depends on which varieties you grow. Rand for rand, it is probably not always worth your while to grow your own potatoes or onions. But with other quick-growing crops, it is a different matter. For even though you may not always be able to produce crops for the same price as the ones in the supermarket, your home-grown vegetables will certainly be far superior in freshness and flavour. Read the rest of this entry »
Some people say you should water plants from overhead, while others advocate surface irrigation. Which is best?
When you water your plants from overhead, you water both the foliage and the ground at the same time. When you surface irrigate, you only wet the soil. Read the rest of this entry »
I get conflicting advice about the best time of day to water the garden. What do you think is the best time?
When to water depends to a great extent on what part of the country you live in, the kind of plants you grow and the time of year. In summer, it is best to water plants early in the morning, as this will keep them damp during the hot part of the day. This applies especially to newly planted bedding plants and vegetables, which may need to be watered again in the afternoon if the weather is hot — and in very hot, dry weather may even need watering at midday as well to keep them from flagging. Read the rest of this entry »
It is possible, but growing mushrooms isn’t easy. They need special and carefully controlled growing conditions and are not widely cultivated by the home gardener. It is also not easy to obtain fresh or dried mushroom spawn, except from a few commercial growers. Read the rest of this entry »
Many home gardeners do not grow melons because the plants need a great deal of growing space, particularly watermelons, whose plants can grow as long as 3 m. Melons also take quite a long time to mature and this means that the plants occupy the ground for lengthy periods, making them unsuitable for a small vegetable garden where space is limited. Read the rest of this entry »
I should like to plant a tree in my smallish garden, but I’m a bit worried about the effect it might have on the drains or the foundations of the house. Are my worries on this score justified?
Willows and poplars are most frequently blamed for damaging foundations. They are greedy for moisture, and their roots will drive through almost anything to find it. Read the rest of this entry »
Many new gardeners concentrate on evergreens because they feel that these are less messy, but all evergreens lose a few leaves right through the year and some — such as the silky oak — can be extremely messy as their leaves need constant sweeping up. On the other hand, deciduous trees lose all their foliage once a year over quite a short period of time. Read the rest of this entry »
The heavy, ash-grey mould is a sure indicator of botrytis — a fungal disease that gets into the plant through the stumps of carelessly trimmed leaves and shoots. Yes — you can do something about it. First remove the diseased fruits before they infect their neighbours. Then cut back diseased leaves and sideshoot stumps to the stem with a sharp knife. Do the same with any rotted sections of the stem. It is advisable to spray the wounds with benomyl. Read the rest of this entry »
The condition is cal led blossom end rot and I’m afraid it is your fault. You are either watering irregularly or else you are not following the instructions carefully when making up your liquid fertiliser feed. All you can do is remove the rotted fruits, and water and feed the tomatoes with more care in future. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Choose a sunny site which has plenty of air circulation but which is protected from very strong winds.
2 Prepare the site thoroughly. Dig in plenty of compost and cow manure and a dressing of 2:3:2 at the rate of 100g per square metre. Read the rest of this entry »
When is the right time to grow tomatoes and how should I go about preparing the ground for them?
Tomatoes are a warm-season crop and the main sowing period is from mid-September to November. But seed can be sown up to a month earlier if you have a greenhouse or some other protected place. Read the rest of this entry »
