Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical advice on growing food and flowers, improving soil, and making the most of small spaces. Start anywhere — the garden will meet you.
Sea Lavender. Hardy and half-hardy annuals and hardy perennial It would be difficult to decide whether the Sea Lavenders are more highly valued as border flowers or as cut material for use indoors. Ce...
This vegetable is commonly known as the Chinese Artichoke, and from the peculiar form it is also called Spirals. A wide difference of opinion exists as to its value, but in its favour the fact may be...
It is the spring flowers that perhaps give the greatest charm and interest to the English garden. Commencing with the flowering trees, the Almond, Double Peach, Prunus Pissardi, and many others, we so...
With dung. 3 to 4 lb. superphosphate 2 to 3 lb. nitrate of soda Without dung 4 to 5 lb. superphosphate 1 lb. sulphate of potash 3 to 4 lb. nitrate of soda TOMATOES need large supplies of potash and ph...
See instructions under Ixia at page 338. TIGRIDIA, or FERRARIA The short-lived blossoms of the Tiger Flower are most gorgeously painted, and differ from everything else of the great family of Irids to...
Annual and perennial; half-hardy Solanums are of importance, some as greenhouse plants, and others as sub-tropical bedders. They are somewhat tender in constitution, and must have good cultivation in...
Snowdrops are among the hardiest flowers known to our gardens, and are invaluable for their welcome snow-white bells in the earliest days of the opening spring. They should be planted in clumps, and l...
Catchfly. Hardy annual Not one of the hardy annuals has established a better claim to be sown in autumn than the Silenes. Alone, they make a very attractive display, and they can be used with especial...
Allium ascalonicum The old-fashioned mode of culture is to plant on the shortest, and lift the crop on the longest, day; but that is only applicable to the milder parts of the country. As a rule, spri...
Agapanthus taxes the soil severely, and must have ample nourishment in pots. It is also one of the thirstiest bulbs known, but is quite hardy, and will thrive in the open if planted in a deep rich loa...
Jacobea. Hardy annual Among the double varieties, the crimson, purple, rose and white Senecios take the lead for beauty and usefulness. They are remarkably accommodating plants, adapted for beds or th...
Crambe maritima Many persons prefer Sea Kale to Asparagus, but the two differ so widely in flavour and general character that no comparison between them is possible. On two points, however, the advant...