Look after your tomatoes well
Look after your tomatoes well at this time of year and they’ll reward you with baskets of gorgeous sun-ripened fruits bursting with juice and flavour. Tomato care Go through your plants weekly nipping out any side shoots emerging between the main stem and the leaves. Let them grow and the plant produces lots of greenery at the expense of fruit, so [...]
Plant globe artichokes now
Plant globe artichokes now to enjoy one of the gourmet highlights of the veg garden as well as adding a handsome, architectural plant to your back garden display. Globe artichokes Globe artichokes are among the most beautiful of vegetable plants, with jagged silvery leaves which grow a whopping 1.5m tall and wide. They make a striking feature plant, especially when [...]
Create an alpine trough
Create an alpine trough to display the tiniest, most delicate beauties of the plant world to perfection, set off against sculptural stone and grit just as they would be in their mountainous homeland. Alpine trough You’ll find troughs for alpines at the garden centre here made of stone, tufa or lightweight stone-effect plastic. Place a layer of gravel or broken terracotta [...]
Move houseplants outdoors
Move houseplants outdoorsfor a summer holiday so they come back inside refreshed and ready to give you their usual superb display next winter. Most houseplants enjoy a spell outside in the warmer weather, including cymbidium orchids, ficus, peace lilies, bromeliads, and Christmas cacti. Keep more delicate, water-sensitive plants like African violets and moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) indoors, though. Move houseplants outdoors [...]
It’s British Flowers Week
It’s British Flowers Week– your chance to celebrate the best of British grown, beautifully fresh cut flowers and foliage. British Flowers Week Often scented, British flowers have a natural charm, beauty and just-picked freshness. You’ll find British flowers are fresher and last longer than flowers flown in from abroad, as minimum distance means maximum vase life. You’ll also be supporting [...]
Train your cordon tomatoes
Train your cordon tomatoesto encourage lots of fruit on a big, vigorous plant. Tomatoes either grow on a bush, in which case it doesn’t need training or a vine. Those grown as a single-stemmed vine are known as ‘cordon’ tomatoes and are trained to increase production and stop side shoots growing into an untidy plant. Train Tomatoes When you pick [...]