If you plant potted Christmas trees or one of the larger conifers, but also the dwarf conifers sooner or later in your garden, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Basically, there are few plants that prepare so well and as early for the winter as rhubarb. Already in the summer, it begins to die back and now in December one sees only a few dried leaves left over the earth-covered rhizome. There is hardly a reason to think about protecting the rhubarb plants during the winter. Obviously, they protect themselves and die back for underground hibernation.

I have received several replies about my commandment "You shall not prune!" For example this letter:

"I pruned and have started to cut my plums and damsons this morning. Do I have to stop until next spring? Or can I at least still cut out the suckers? Even my cherry tree is out of shape. Please help me out."

In the last Facebook video show before the summer break, Markus talks about native v foreign plants, and about how some of our traditional and favourite fruits are actually immigrants. And we get to see a tiny bit of the Lubera greenhouse, as he explains what we need to be doing in our fruit gardens this summer.

Markus was live from Germany in this week’s Lubera UK Facebook video (which you can watch now if you missed it), and although he was talking about citrus thorns, roses and strawberries, the plants are the real stars of the show!

In the latest Lubera UK live Facebook video, Markus shares two new deals, explains how to prune lavender and how to deal with peach leaf curl, and tells us the heartbreaking story of the McIntosh apple.

In this week’s Facebook show, Markus was filming live in the garden of Lubera’s German nursery. It was raining! But Markus is a hardy plant, so he carried on with the show, answering questions posed by Lubera fans.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to see the video of the second English Lubera live Facebook event, then I can thoroughly recommend tuning in! Markus has once again recorded a really useful and interesting show, from his garden in Switzerland. We’re all very impressed that he records the show twice - first in German and then in his characteristic and entertaining ‘Swenglish’.

«Do no fertilise in the garden; you only need to wait for the harvest.»

The most popular country saying, which we like to use in the garden, actually means this: more provides more! "Do you want a little bit more?" The question is good, for example, when shopping for meats, sausages and cheese where food is still freshly weighed, only because the answer is almost automatically "yes". People have learned from their own survival history: more is more!

Hello, I need your advice. My 12 year old apricot Luziet is “ailing”. When I went to Spain four weeks ago, the tree was in bloom. For several years I have been fighting against Monilinia in the variety Luziet. Two years ago I had to cut a thick branch out of the tree so that it wouldn’t die. And since the weather in Opfikon, Switzerland hasn’t been so good during last three weeks, I suppose that the tree is again infested with brown rot (despite having sprayed it three times with Cupro Maag). What is even stranger is that the Bergeron that I bought from you three years ago is healthy (and only a few metres away).

My question to you is this: shall I cut down the tree and dig up the roots? Then wait a year and plant the variety Kyoto in the same spot? What do you advise?

10 Tips for (not only) urban sweet potatoes

Last night in Berlin. Near the S-Bahn station Warschauer Straße, the industrial wastelands, the new buildings, the Mercedes Arena, these areas are slowly getting hip. So hip that the bars and trendy pubs will soon disappear (please also check out our raffle for a weekend in Berlin).

The garden plot Deluxe has been opened by pflanzenfreude.de, the marketing organisation of the Dutch garden industry. Other sponsors include Amazon with furnishings, Dümmen Orange with bedding and balcony plants and…well of course Lubera with fruit crops.

There are young people, especially women. Almost all of them are from the PR and advertising industry. Some journalists, a philosopher as a bartender. There’s barbecuing at its best and of course side dishes to go along with it: sweet potatoes. This is a must! Just like the most used word in small talk: urban gardening.

The cordon tree is something like the gardener’s victory over the tree. Here, the domesticated tree no longer pushes itself self-determined toward the light, but the gardener dictates where it grows.