Large Scale Water Features

Lori Waters from Magnitude.io joins Emma the Space Gardener to talk about the Exolab experiments that have sent intrepid leguminauts into space, the student researchers involved in the ground control experiments, and her experiences as an analog astronaut.

A quick way to clean the algae out of a garden water feature after a long, dark, and wet winter is to use a power washer. It only takes a few minutes to dislodge the long mats of algae, and the low volume of water that blows out of the nozzle doesn’t disturb even the smallest of rocks. Start at the top of where the water flows and work your way down to the bottom of the feature. This is a lot easier and more effective than grabbing the strands by hand and then using a brush to clean the rest away. You can see the difference in these “before” and “after” photos. I enjoy this a lot more than power washing the patio.

It has taken a long, hot, dry spell in my Yorkshire garden for me to catch on to the blinking obvious.

Lily themed week shows some more waterlilies and tips for a happy pond.

More plants drown than die of thirst but Azalea houseplants do need damp soil.

If gardeners are exceptional people then buy them a copy of this book for Christmas. It contains 20 stories and profiles about encounters with gardeners and a day in their life to provide reading matter for dark garden-free evenings.

White is the second most useful colour in the garden after green. I am progressively increasing the number and variety of white and grey plants that I grow.

London Holland Park’s water feature in Kyoto Garden.

You can’t throw lilies away if Lily is still wearing them (Lonnie Donegan)

This Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum) houseplant is being killed with kindness by the family waterer.

In the Georgian period of the 1700’s John Aislabie set about landscaping a water garden at Studley Royal near Ripon. Today it is a verdant green garden with ornamental lakes, cascades and vistas to take the breath away.

This £1 packet of supermarket potato tubers have just been harvested to cook as new potatoes tonight. The variety was Charlotte, they were chitted in February and planted out in a frost shelter in March.