The leaves fall to form a deep carpet beneath the trees, adding to the dead twigs, flowers and unripe fruit remnants already there. Every year trees shed more than 3,000 kg of waste products in every hectare of woodland and all this breaks down, together with the herbs of the forest floor to form a deep layer of litter. As this litter breaks down so the minerals and other organic substances which were stored in the leaves are released once more, and the resulting layer of humus acts as a natural fertilizer. Read the rest of this entry »

My grandson Brian is a real carrot fan. When he sees the feathery carrot tops in the garden he can hardly wait to start pulling up his orange snacks. Kids like discovering buried treasure and I’ve taught Brian how to find the biggest carrots in the row—by looking for the darkest green tops. (Works almost every time.) To get the most of your carrots‘ vitamin A and other minerals, don’t peel them. A good scrubbing with a vegetable brush is all they need.

I try a lot of carrot varieties each year, all lengths and shapes. My friend Ed told me about the Danversvariety which I grow every year. He said it was developed a long time ago in the area around Danvers, Massachusetts. When he was a kid he weeded carrot fields there by hand for a summer job and received $4 a week! Read the rest of this entry »

crimson spire

Huge, crimson-red, shapely flowers are formed on long stems at different heights on this 2,5 m high growing rose. Blooms can be picked without exhausting the rose, since its astounding vigour ensures that

it simply carries on growing and flowering.

double delight

A climbing mutation of the famous Bush rose, with similar qualities: highly perfumed blooms of a basic white colour with a red edging flower in profusion the full length of the long climbing canes.

Great north

The ‘Great North’ conjures up an image of high, snow-covered mountains — and this rose presents just such a show. Buds are pointed and well shaped, opening into fragrant, double white blooms. A mature shrub will reach 3 m and can be covered with over a hundred white, cut-flower blooms. Since this plant builds itself up with short, flowering branches rather than long, nonflowering canes, it is a neat Spire with wide use in free-form landscaping, especially along fences or as tall backgrounds. Read the rest of this entry »

The name Amaranthus derives from the Greek amaranton, unfading’. The beautiful deep wine-red flowers keep their colour and shape for a long time and thus the plant came to symbolise immortality. According to the 17th-century ‘doctrine of signatures’ the colour or shape of a plant symbolised an ailment or a part of the body. In this case the red colour of the flowers indicated the blood of the patient, thus crushed leaves and flowers were placed over wounds or a decoction of the leaves was drunk to stop bleeding and to build the blood. Modern scientific findings indicate this isn’t far wrong!

A. CULTIVATION Amaranth grows best in full sun, in areas that have been dug over and well composted. Keep seedlings moist and protected, and the sturdy, quickly growing plants will reach maturity in about 6 weeks, from 20 cm upwards. Some varieties grow up to 2 m in height, so you will have red-tinged leaves for a long time in great abundance. The young tender leaves and sprigs are most sought after: remember the more leaves you pick the more it will produce. Once you have amaranth in your garden you will always have it — it reseeds quickly. It is a short- lived annual and will continue up until the first frosts. Read the rest of this entry »