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Monty demonstrates how to sow carrot seed and shares tips on protecting your crop from carrot root fly with a combination of physical barriers, companion planting and later sowings.spring-summerMore advice on growing carrotsAdvice on dealing with carrot root flyGrow carrots in a ...

's better to make an earth clamp. Choose a sheltered, dry site to make your clamp, and only choose carrots in good condition. Prepare the crops by shaking off loose soil and removing any foliage.Home-grown carrotsStrawautumn1 hourDig a shallow hole and cover

Carrots need space to develop fully so, once germinated, go over your rows of carrots and pick out the weakest-looking vegetable seedlings to leave a 2cm - 4cm space around remaining seedlings. If you're very careful in extracting the seedling from

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

.Snails mostly feed at night; mild, damp conditions suiting them best. Go out with a torch and collect them by hand. Either re-home them on a patch of waste ground, well away from your garden as they have a homing instinct, or drop them in a bucket of hot, salty

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

sun. It reaches 1.5m high.Eryngium giganteumHappy in woodland conditions, the yellow- or orange-flowered Welsh poppies are annuals that don't mind shade, making them perfect to weave under trees and taller shrubs.Meconopsis cambricaA cottage garden

combined with Phormium 'Bronze Baby' for height, along with nasturtiums and purple basil for good measure.Top container annualsCoreopsis tinctoria 'Mahogany Midget'The cottage-garden feel of these daisy-like flowers adds a sense of informality and movement

Find out how to combine annuals and perennials of varying heights in a 'wave' planting, in this practical video guide from Carol Klein.springMore planting advicePlant a bare-root rosePlant a shrubPlant a bare-root treePlant a fig tree

California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are hardy annuals that bring a vivid splash of colour to summer borders. After their long flowering period the plants will also readily self-seed.California poppy seeds eg 'Golden Values'Bamboo cane