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Fat hen, Chenopodium album, is an annual weed loved by butterflies, and whose young leaves are delicious in salads or cooked like spinach. However, it will also quickly colonise open ground and spread through your garden if left unchecked - a single

. Plants are also able to overwinter.Small short-lived annual plants which spread rapidly by means of small seeds dispersed from spring-like seedpods. Remove young plants before they get a chance to flower and set seed. Pull them out individually by hand

Pineapple weed, Matricaria matricarioides, relishes the challenge of rooting into a well-trodden path or other seemingly unhospitable soils. When walked on the plant's leaves release a pleasant pineapple-like scent, but a single plant will flower and produce thousands of plants i...

Saving seed from your garden plants is easy to do and will provide you with plenty to sow next season. Leave a few seedheads on your plants after they've finished flowering, removing the rest to conserve the plant's energy. Alternatively the seedheads may be highly ornamental and...

Every garden has its fair share of slugs and the bad news is that they are around for most of the year. They're active mostly after dark, especially when it's damp. In hot dry weather they bury themselves to avoid dehydrating.Holes are chewed in soft, new growth, young stems are ...

Snails, like slugs, cause a great deal of damage to plants. They feed mostly at night, seeking shelter during the day from the drying effects of the sun. However, the snail's shell allows it to move more freely than a slug over dry areas, such as paving. It too, leaves a tell-tal...

Speedwell (Veronica spp) is an annual weed that spreads through lawns and borders, and has attractive tiny blue flowers. It spreads by seed in spring and autumn to form plants with strong tap roots. Speedwell appears in lawns as individual plants

Raising summer bedding plants from seed is easy, it saves you money and greatly extends the range of plant varieties you can grow.The secret of germinating summer bedding seeds is a plentiful supply of warmth and light. Most seeds need a steady heat of 18-21°C to germinate, so do...

As a rule, I only grow plants that will benefit bees, moths and other pollinators. I do relax this rule, though, by growing auriculas. I do this for my partner, who loves them (even if bees don’t).We have built up quite a collection over the years, including gold- and light-centr...

for most seeds.Of course, it’s different for hardy annuals, which look best planted in a natural, pretty effect drifting through borders among other plants. I've been filling in the gaps among my emerging perennials with what I hope will be a sea of blue