Gardening and Horticulture
Read out Gardening and Horticulture Blog
One of the very first and most frustrating things that I learnt as a tutor was how little difference there is between the best assignments and those that only scrape a pass. Often the difference is as simple as one assignment using world class sources and another one just getting by with a few webpages. …
Humans have an uncanny and incredible capacity to attribute meaning to pretty much anything and teach that meaning to others. This ability to create a language from ordinary items and symbols allowed the Victorians from the upper stratas of society, who were taught expressing certain things by word improper, to make grand, intense declarations …
So far in this series we have looked at the pesticides used today, the pesticides banned since World War II, and the first industrial chemical pesticides. In this final post, I want to tell a less well-known story: how pest control functioned before the modern period, especially in medieval and early modern Europe. Chemical pesticides …
In previous posts, I told the story of today’s controversial pesticides, and then went back to describe the pesticides famously banned since World War II like DDT, dieldrin, the organophosphates and the neonics. In this post, I’m going to describe how the first modern European pesticides were discovered, marketed and produced on an industrial scale. …
Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides (generally considered together as ‘pesticides’ or informally as ‘chemicals’) have a long and controversial history. On the one hand, we need them to keep towns and streets pest-free to 21st century standards, and they also have an often-overlooked, vital environmental function in protecting our National Parks from invasive species like Rhododendron. …
It’s official! After only one year of online study at the Academy for Distance Learning, I have just received my certificate from the RHS. I’ve passed all eight modules and I now hold the Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Horticulture! The RHS Level 2 qualification is the most recognised certification in the industry, …
Note – we strongly recommend this be read in conjunction with articles titled 'Self and Cross Pollination' and 'The Importance of Pollination for Top Crop and Fruit Breeders' An F1 hybrid is the first filial ( F1) generation produced by crossing two pure bred parent plants. What is a Pure Bred Plant? Pure bred parent …
Rhododendron is a very popular genus of shrubs for gardens due to its clusters of flowers, which can cover the surface of the shrub, most often in spring. They are generally evergreen (except the deciduous Azaleas) and the individual flowers are concave (tubular, funnel, trumpet or saucer shaped) with long filaments (unlike flatter Hydrangeas). They …
Note – we strongly recommend this be read in conjunction with articles titled 'F1 Hybrids and Other Hybrid Matters' and 'Self and Cross Pollination' . For top fruit growers and growers of many vegetables, growing the right variety is important because of flowering and pollination times. As well as this, there are several other factors …
The areas of pollination, self and cross pollination, frequently occur across many topics in horticulture so we thought we'd explain how this works. We recommend reading this in conjunction with 'F1 Hybrids and Other Hybrid Matters' and 'The Importance of Pollination for Top Crop and Fruit Breeders'. What is Pollination? Pollination is said to have …
Horticulture is one of those subjects that feel counter-intuitive to online learning. The very practical aspect of it makes it seem a bit silly to get a distance learning course to teach you how to pot a plant instead of, say, going to a local college to be taught in person. However, if you've ever …
If you are currently studying a horticulture course with us, we’ve compiled a list of sites we think are a great help. In no particular order of preference: The RHS The RHS website is so full of information, you can spend countless hours on this site browsing plant advice, gardening advice and even purchasing seeds for …
I recently inherited a small garden to work with which presented a slight conundrum. For one thing, it was a bit late in spring for heroic amounts of germination and bringing plants on, and for another, there are limitations on the amenity use of the garden. The largest parcel of land is lawn and (regrettably) …
