Pricking out; the process of putting a single seedling into a cell or pot was in my college days an essential skill. Nowadays, the total mechanisation, mass production of and distribution of plants in trays of up to 300 cells has vastly reduced the importance of this skill. Allowing the seedlings to grow for an [...]

We are almost at the end of January, a moment that is highly significant as on the final day, I can walk home in good light, even on a cloudy day, though even at this time of the year, 5pm is an early finishing time. In the soil, despite the freezing temperatures, there will just [...]

Just 3 weeks away from the shortest day, I hear the forecasters say that winter has begun. It’s not the temperature that dictates the rhythm of life so much as the hours of daylight. My intention was to carry on with British Summer Time, getting up nice and early and leaving work as it became [...]

With the onset of cooler and shorter days, the work routine from September has changed. Then, the first job of the morning was to get the watering done. Now, this task has become more of a quick check round. Plants undercover are using much less water, so we can reduce the number of days on [...]

A greenhouse gives you the opportunity to sow seeds and grow plants much earlier in the year than you can outside. However, this is all work and when you have as much glass as we do, the early start makes for a long season. During the warm weather we have had to continue watering carefully [...]

For three years, I wrote a monthly article for a local magazine. My aim was to tell a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes on a nursery and to dispel the idea that plant production is an easy task. It is, of course quite the opposite .In a lifetime of working on [...]