Guide for farmers to help growing flowers.
Hydrangeas are very sensitive to the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and the flowers will change colour according to the soil in which they are growing. They react in the same way as litmus paper: pink flowers in a limy soil and blue flowers in an acid soil. In very limy soil the flowers [...]
Using lots of herbs in cooking. Can you suggest how to grow them so that they look attractive in the garden, as I find they can look a bit drab in their long off-season.I mix certain herbs in with my vegetables, these being the ones that I use in copious quantities. Current favourites are parsley, [...]
Much better are ground rock dusts, which are natural slow-release sources of potash, phosphate or calcium, plus lime, which is especially necessary to keep the soil sweet for vegetables and stone fruits. Calcified seaweed is a lime made from seaweed, which has trace elements in profusion and stimulates the soil’s life as well as sweetening [...]
Other good plants for a hedge house are beech (Fagus sylvatica), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) or, for the impatient person, Cotoneaster lacteus, but this would need more than one cut a year to keep it looking like a house, rather than a bush. The fastest choice would probably be ivy (Hedera), but you would definitely need [...]
The cooking cherries, morellos, are easiest to grow, as these will endure some shade and can be very simply pruned (unlike the others). Unfortunately, they are too sour to eat fresh. My plums have maggots in most of them. What can I do about this’ Pick off and pick up any infected fruits and destroy [...]