Garden Nations

Mediterranean Plants · Cactus The Prickly Pear: A Cactus With a Sea View Found on the cliffs of Tropea in Calabria – here's how this tough Mediterranean classic grows, what you can eat, and how to keep one in a colder climate. Walk along the coast in southern Italy and you will see them everywhere: big, flat, green "paddles" stacked on top of each other, growing out of rocks and dry slopes right above the sea. That's the prickly pear, or Opuntia ficus-indica – called fico d'India in Italy and Kaktusfeige in German. We took these photos in Tropea at the end of October. Even after a long, hot, dry summer, the plants looked healthy and strong. That says a lot about how well this cactus is made for tough conditions – and why it's becoming popular in gardens and on balconies far beyond the Mediterranean. What Is a Prickly Pear? The prickly pear is a cactus originally from Mexico. It arrived in Europe in the 1500s and spread so well around the Medi...

Pollinators · Flower Garden Turn Your Garden Into a Butterfly Magnet One shrub, a handful of the right flowers and a little "mess" – that's all butterflies need to find you. The photo above is a butterfly bush we spotted still flowering at the end of October, long after most of the garden had gone quiet. In summer, a shrub like this can be covered in butterflies from morning to evening. People call it the "butterfly catcher" for a reason. But a butterfly-friendly garden is about more than one plant. Butterflies need nectar from spring to autumn , plants for their caterpillars , sun, shelter and water . Get those four things right and they will come back every year. The Star Plant: Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii) The butterfly bush is a fast-growing shrub with long, cone-shaped flower spikes in purple, pink, white or deep violet. The flowers are full of sweet, honey-scented nectar, and their shape makes it easy for butterflies to land and drink....

Agriculture Around the World · Technology The Future of Farming Is Already in the Field Drones over rice paddies in China, drip lines in the Israeli desert, glasshouses in the Netherlands and solar panels over German orchards: the technologies changing how the world grows food. The world needs to feed more people every year, with less water, less available land and more extreme weather. Farmers everywhere are answering that challenge with technology, and some of it would have sounded like science fiction twenty years ago. Not every innovation is a success, and not every one makes sense for a small family farm. But many ideas that started on big commercial farms are now cheap enough to reach smallholders and even home gardeners . In this article: eight agricultural technologies shaping farming worldwide, where they are used most, what works and what doesn't, and which ideas you can borrow for your own garden. 1. Agricultural Drones: China Leads the Sky Drones have b...

Autumn · Garden Planning Autumn Is the Start of Next Year's Garden What to do in your garden right now, and how to use the quiet months to get ready for winter, spring and summer, so next year is your best season yet. Most people think of autumn as the end of the gardening year. Experienced gardeners see it the other way round: autumn is where next year begins . The soil you feed now, the notes you write now and the seeds you sort now decide how easy (or how stressful) your spring will be. The good news is that none of this is hard work. It is mostly about doing the right small things at the right time, and using the slow, dark months for planning instead of panic-buying in April. In this guide: what to do in the garden now, a season-by-season plan for winter, spring and summer, a simple planning calendar, and the most common mistakes that cost gardeners a whole season. Part 1: What to Do in the Garden Right Now Late October and November are about three things: pro...

Fruit Garden · Autumn Planting Plant It Now, Pick Apples for Decades Why late autumn is the best moment to plant apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, and how to do it step by step so your tree settles in before spring. There is an old saying: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is now. For fruit trees, "now" is quite literal. From late autumn to early spring , while the trees are dormant, nurseries sell them as bare-root trees : no pot, no soil, just roots wrapped in a bag. They are cheaper than potted trees, there is a much bigger choice of varieties, and they establish beautifully if you plant them right. Planting in autumn gives the roots a head start. The soil is still a little warm and usually moist, so new roots can grow over winter, and the tree is ready to push leaves and blossom in spring. In this guide: bare-root vs potted trees, choosing the right tree (rootstock and pollination explained simply), picking the spot, th...

Houseplants · Christmas Flowers The Cactus That Blooms in Winter (and Lives for Decades) How to water, place and time your Christmas cactus so it covers itself in flowers every December, and how to tell it apart from its Thanksgiving and Easter cousins. Some houseplants are bought for one season and forgotten. The Christmas cactus is the opposite. In many families it is the plant that grandma had on the windowsill, and the same plant (or a cutting of it) is still flowering 30 or 40 years later. In Germany it is called Weihnachtskaktus or Gliederkaktus, and it is one of the most loved winter-flowering plants in Europe. It is also one of the most misunderstood. People treat it like a desert cactus, give it full sun and almost no water, and then wonder why it never blooms. Or they move it around the house while it is full of buds, and all the buds fall off overnight. In this guide: what this plant really is, how to recognise the three "holiday cacti", the right ligh...

Houseplants · Christmas Flowers The Christmas Star That Doesn't Have to Die in January How to choose, water and place your poinsettia so it stays red all winter, and how to make it change colour again next year. Every November the supermarkets, garden centres and Christmas markets fill up with poinsettias. In Germany they are called Weihnachtsstern (Christmas star), and they are one of the best-selling pot plants of the whole year. And every January, a huge number of them end up in the bin, dropping leaves and looking sad. The good news: most poinsettias don't die because they are difficult. They die because of three simple mistakes: cold, too much water, and a bad spot . In this guide: how to pick a healthy plant, how to bring it home safely, the right light, temperature and watering, why the leaves fall, the truth about toxicity, and the step-by-step method to make it turn red again next Christmas. A Mexican Plant With a Winter Job The poinsettia ( Euphorbia...