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.
Cucumis sativus The Cucumber is everywhere valued. Its exceeding usefulness explains its popularity, and happily the plant is of an accommodating character. In large establishments, Cucumbers are grow...
Fritillaria imperialis A noble plant which needs a deep, rich, moist soil, and an open situation, to insure the full degree of stateliness, but it will make a very good figure in any border where it c...
This brilliant harbinger of spring will thrive in any soil or situation, but to be brought to the highest possible perfection it should be grown in an open bed or border of deep, rich, dry sandy loam....
Lepidium sativum Cress is best grown in small lots from frequent sowings, and the sorts should be kept separate, and, if possible, on the same border. Fresh fine soil is requisite, and there is no occ...
Brassica oleracea costata Couve Tronchuda, or Portugal Cabbage, is a fine vegetable that should be grown in every garden, including those in which Cabbages generally are not regarded as of much import...
Cosmos. Half-hardy annual Cosmeas make a striking show in the mixed border, and the flowers are also in large request for indoor decoration. Disappointment is often caused, however, through the plants...
Valerianella olitoria Corn Salad, or Lamb's Lettuce, so often seen on Continental tables, is comparatively unknown in this country. The reason for this is, perhaps, to be found in the fact that, as a...
Stove perennial There is so much difficulty in carrying Coleus through the winter in vigorous health that the modern plan of treating it as an annual is advantageous for the saving of trouble and fire...
Celosia cristata. Tender annual This fine old-fashioned flower has won renewed popularity of late years, probably as the result of a number of well-grown plants exhibited at horticultural shows. Those...
The Climbing French Bean has all the merits of the Dwarf French Bean, and the climbing habit not only extends the period of bearing but results in a yield such as cannot be obtained from the most prol...
Stove shrub A very handsome erect shrub, which is extensively grown in tropical gardens. In this country it attains a height of about two feet, and is easily raised from seed in a warm greenhouse or c...