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the distractions of computers and mobile phones, it seems that 11-year-old young ladies still imagine themselves frolicking in a flower garden with a trug across their arm.We've already got a bed of blood-red dahlias, which provide a lot of flowers for the house

It's been difficult to choose my 2009 weed of the year. Butercups and daisies continue to compete with grass in my lawn, as do those lovely rosettes of plantain. Then there are the dandelions. Oh dear, this isn't making my lawn sound very good is it

on such small bits of card!Another is a series of fifty garden flowers ranging from delphiniums and water lilies to annuals like bright red salvias and candytuft. Each card has a bit of information and some hints about cultivation written by Richard Sudell - who

.Although grown in the UK as annuals, chillies are perennial plants, so technically they can last for several years. The climate of their native South and Central America helps though. I once stayed in a hostel in Fiji that had lush, green chilli bushes growing

.Cowslip, Primula verisLeft to its own devices, the foxglove tree, Paulownia tomentosa can grow to a height and spread of 12m x 10m. But if cut down to the ground annually, it will produce long (3m) stems with leaves up to 60cm wide.Foxglove tree, Paulownia

... round shrubs, roses and flowers, along the base of the hedge, around fruit trees and bushes, and over the veg plot. Beans get a good, deep mulch of compost to help conserve soil moisture, too, but it's not just water retention that mulching is good for

This has slender branches and forms tussocks about 1.5m wide and high. With its attractive whorls it looks similar to horsetail. It has golden-brown flower heads in spring, followed by dark-brown seedheads.Elegia capensisThis bears thrusting 3m tall stems

Libra: flowerScorpio: leafSagittarius: fruitCapricorn: rootAquarius: flowerPisces: leafSo, calculating from Friday 12 June, 2010, which is a new moon, I can mark my calendar thus:12-19 June: period one (plant leafy crops)19-26 June: period two (plant fruit crops

will be taken over for as long as is necessary and I will be oblivious to any complaints.First off are hardy annuals, such as Eryngium leavenworthii, which can be sown from February onwards under cover. I’ll also sow a few tomato seeds, though I find there

lucky the Central Committee for Agriculture may plant some of my annual flowers for the cutting bed I had planned, but for all I know they could be planning to dig the whole lot up and plant nothing but potatoes!