What Tropical Plants Can You Grow In Your UK Garden? - FG Blog

Lavender is a lovely and popular flowering herb. The lavender I grow in my garden isLavandula angustifolia, also known as English Lavender. The variety I have is called Hidcote, which is a relatively compact lavender with deep purple flowers. Versatile and easy to grow, this lavender is a useful wildlife attractant on the sunny fringe of my forest garden.

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A little while ago I was talking about the recent extended period in my life when, for a variety of reasons, I was unable to garden. As it happens, I have been reading The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, which is subtitled “Food production and self-reliance in uncertain times”.

A seed potato is a potato that has been grown to be replanted to produce a potato crop. It’s the usual way that potatoes are made available to farmers and growers – although it is possible to produce potato seeds (also known as True Potato Seed, TPS), it is unusual to do so.

Food waste is a hot topic at the moment, and deservedly so – the environmental damage done by producing 10 million tonnes of uneaten food each year in the UK is impressive, associated with around 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The monetary value of that food is over £17 billion a year, and 60% of the waste could have been avoided.

The news that Iceberg lettuces are being rationed in the UK, due to supply shortages, has made me ponder the nature of salad. When I was growing up, salad was Iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumber. I didn’t eat salad.

Guy Singh-Watson of Riverford Organics is warning about the risks of Brexit-related disruptions to our food supply, timed to coincide with the ‘Hungry Gap‘. He says “to be told by people who have no idea how their food is produced that this is ‘project fear’ makes me incandescent with rage”. Farmers and seasoned gardeners will be nodding their heads, but everyone else may be a little perplexed. What’s the Hungry Gap?

Last summer, Ryan and I popped on our face masks, slathered our hands in sanitiser and braved a trip to pandemic-era Ikea. There were a few things we needed, and I wanted to stock up on consumables for my Hydroponicum.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma takes the time machine for a spin to explore the early history of seeds in space. Plus you’ll find out which plants will be best for terraforming Mars, why greenhouses may soon be made from solar panels, what’s included in a Russian space tourist package and more!

In my space blog posts and episodes of the Gardeners of the Galaxy podcast, I use the word microgravity a lot. But what is it, exactly? This video, produced by the UK Space Agency and the Open University explains what microgravity is and the value for scientists of creating a ‘weightless’ environment on Earth.

What will the first astronauts to set foot on Mars eat? NASA is putting some serious thought into that question. Astronauts on the ISS can choose from around 200 different items on the American menu, all shelf-stable, long-life foods. The problem is that a trip to Mars will take two to three years, and the foods currently available will start to lose their nutrient value before the astronauts get home.

In January 1992, Space Shuttle Discovery took the first-ever British plant experiment in microgravity into space.