News

Late April onwards is the perfect time for starting squashes, courgettes and cucumbers indoors – on a windowsill or in a greenhouse. These warmth-loving species need sufficient time to develop into strong young plants before mid-May when the last frosts are over and they can be planted outdoors.

When California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) opens its flowers it’s like the sunshine has come down and kissed your garden. This enchanting wildflower is an iconic plant of the American West – and a fascinating plant for the future for natural and sustainable gardens. What makes California poppy a plant for the future?

Nature has its own internal rhythms, and following them in your garden can have a really powerful effect. While the traditional calendar gives us fixed dates, the phenology calendar follows a different principle: it’s aligned with natural developments in the world of plants and wildlife. Because of this it shows us when it’s really time for sowing, planting and harvesting.

For chillies and similar heat-loving plants our Central European climate is a big challenge. With our short summers and frosty nights we have to take a radically different approach to growing them. Give these plants the head start they need by sowing them early – in January or February.

Have you heard of ‘Cool Flowers’? If not then you definitely need to! These flowers are not just cool in every sense of the word – they’re a real game-changer for all flower lovers. But let’s start at the beginning.

When it comes to home-grown fresh salad greens for winter, lamb’s lettuce is what instantly springs to mind for most people. But that’s just one of a huge range of options. Here’s a quick tour of the salad varieties you could choose and how to grow them successfully outdoors without any heating – so that you can feast on your own home-grown fresh green salad all winter long.