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, sprinkled liberally with freshly ground pepper. Believe me, they are delicious.Although I'm loathed for making space for nettles in my garden, the sight of large patches of them brings joy to my heart. These spiteful weeds are the perfect host for four

I’ve grown garlic successfully for years. But last summer was an exception, as the warm, wet weather provided the perfect conditions for garlic rust to thrive. Bulbous plants infected with rust usually wither and die early, before the bulbs have time to swell. This same pathogen ...

that have been providing interest around the garden, but this potted collection will suffer in the cold. I need to give the plants a sheltered home under cover.In past years I’ve sometimes risked keeping a few in my unheated greenhouse over winter

by flooding. It’s hard to imagine anything worse happening to your home.Putting up with a wet garden could appear rather trivial in the context of major weather events, but the past few years have highlighted how variable and extreme our weather has become

right away.3. Insulate outside tapNot only must I turn off the stopcock to my garden tap to isolate the water supply (mine is almost hidden behind pipework under the kitchen sink), but I must wrap insulation material round the brass tap itself. Again, I

There's a lot more to a great salad than lettuce. Apart from a nice assortment of colourful leaves and a slight crunch if they're fresh, I'm not convinced that lettuce adds much more to salad than bulk!I prefer to grow salad leaves with real flavour like rocket, watercress, and a...

simply sold as 'sweetcorn', 'tomato' or 'white potato' when you haven't a clue what the variety actually is? We can be far more discerning, as both consumers and gardeners, choosing and growing named varieties of crops that have the flavour and eating

At last, the warm weather has kick-started the season, and blossom is finally appearing.What a difference a year makes. Checking back at my diary, in 2012 the first 'Victoria' plum blossom opened on 28 March. One year on and the same plum tree only started blossoming last week, o...