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It can be much trickier changing the soil in a greenhouse trench than in a garden border. I’m lucky to have trenches with brick bases, but my heart goes out to anyone with borders glazed to the base. It's so easy to break panes when excavating soil

In those wonderful James Herriot stories, there is a woman called Mrs Pumphrey, whose spoilt dog is known as  ‘flop-bot’. With a name like that, there is no need for a description. When a tray of seedlings suffers with the horticultural equivalent, and the whole lot keels over in...

I splashed out and bought myself a greenhouse, in fact the greenhouse of my dreams a few years ago. A lovely red cedar affair with a brick base and even a brick path and cold-frames off to one side. It was a total luxury and I love it. It has

The temperature in my greenhouse is fluctuating wildly. It rockets during the day, when the weather is sunny, then plunges at night. The contrast is far more marked than at this time last year.This year I delayed sowing many crops, and I almost wish

I reckon that spring is in the air, albeit intermittently. The daffodils have been stirring (in tandem with the snowdrops!) and I have the urge to spring clean the greenhouse.A good clear out makes a lot of sense - it's good to make space for all

the greenhouse at this time of year, composting or binning any winter plant casualties. Somehow after Christmas I always feel mentally tougher and better able to throw out plants I should have binned long since.Seed packets that are way past their sell-by date

This has been the best year for tomatoes in recent memory. I crammed 14 tomato plants into my greenhouse border, ignoring the advice of several knowledgeable friends to plant a maximum of eight!We've been feasting on tomatoes for weeks, regularly

I've only just got around to chitting seed potatoes. Many of this year's spuds were given to me for my birthday by my kids in February. I normally chit them in the greenhouse, but after last year's potato massacre I felt that putting the tubers rose

evening when recording some Gardeners' Question Time programmes, we were tucking in to the food laid on by the host horticultural society. The sandwiches were lovely, but Bob Flowerdew and I found ourselves feasting on the salad 'garnish' on the generous

The first really hard frost hit this morning. The garden was so white it almost looked as if it was covered with snow. It was gorgeous to look at but pretty miserable for some of the less hardy plants. But when I went into the greenhouse to grab