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using a pruning saw. For large branches, leave 1cm - 2cm where it joins the main stem, so that the tree or shrub can heal the wound.More pruning advicePruning shrub roses, with advice from Monty DonChris Beardshaw gives tips on pruning viburnum plants

There are days nominated to celebrate apples, festivals for tomatoes and chillies, and whole weeks to inform us about bird nesting boxes, trees, allotments and composting ... and this week it's the turn of the conifer.The Association of British

be layers of food from tall trees through shrubs down to perennials and ground cover. So starting with things like chestnuts (Castanea sativa); cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) and obvious things like apples, mulberries and plums. Then shrubby stuff like

Scott's tree planting habits).- The Merry Hall Trilogy. I adore these books: beautifully written, light and fluffy sagas about a new garden taken on in the 1950s by novelist Beverley Nichols. He writes very amusingly about people, places, plants and cats

of flies emerges.Fruit flies (at least two Drosophila species) feature strongly, which is no surprise given the amount of apple cores, banana skins, melon shells and potato peelings we chuck in each week. Although the adult flies are only 2.5mm long

, and you'll see what I mean. Feeders provide seed and peanuts for birds all-year-round. Plants with fruits and berries are grown to provide birds with fresh pickings - especially my cherries and soft fruits, where I'm sometime lucky to get a look in! Apple

spots are covering the leaves and your hard work has been lost.This year I'm growing 10 different varieties of salad potato for a taste trial for Gardeners' World magazine, some of them, like 'Pink Fir Apple', are late maincrop varieties, so there doesn

dipping at the over-abundant moths or skimming the tops of the apple tree. There was even time to call the family out from watching the telly, and alert the neighbours.They stayed around for at least 15 minutes. I must admit that I may have encouraged them

gardener – naturally gave me the bit of garden she didn’t want: a north-facing bindweed-ridden patch of earth beneath an apple tree. There I grew courgettes, carrots, lettuce and runner beans. I harvested the carrots too early (how my mum laughed