You must water Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Camellias with rainwater. I’ve heard this many times in hard water areas, based no doubt on the fact hard water contains lime and lime is used to reduce the acidity of soils and composts.…

Parsley seed must be soaked before you sow it. Some plants seem to attract myth and superstition and parsley is one. The truth is parsley is slow to germinate and gardeners can be impatient, so people have looked to ways…

Garden ponds need a filter. Properly designed and planted a garden pond does not need a filter. Long ago when I was a child we had a garden pond, along with many other people of course, but no one had…

You can get grass to grow well in the shade. No you can’t. Grass will put up with a lot; how any plants will put up with being regularly cut down and walked all over? Like everything it has its…

Slugs and snails can be kept off Hostas by raising them high up or setting them in gravel. Hostas are a versatile and attractive genus of garden plants; used and loved by gardeners. Unfortunately the large succulent leaves that make…

It’s a simple environmental choice. The road to hell is paved with good intentions The problem with the environment is its complicated; I mean REALLY complicated! Not just fiendish Sudoku complicated, more theoretical physics complicated. In the environment everything interacts…

Cacti don’t need water. Every plant needs water. The amount they need varies greatly with a pond plant at one extreme and a cactus at the other; but they all still need some water. The plants grouped together as cacti…