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, 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

, such as lavender and viper’s bugloss. Then there are the trees and shrubs that have been too big to consider until now. And perhaps I’ll have room for a hedge or mini meadow (who am I kidding?).And then there’s the wildlife. Which species can I lure into my garden

of Tears is a dry stone wall, built with pieces of volcanic rock. It stands at about 4m tall and 20m long, in the middle of an arid landscape of cacti, giant tortoises and poisonous apple-like fruits from the Hippomane mancinella tree.Building the wall must

as edibles like blackcurrant, beetroot and hop. The long hawthorn hedge make me crave one of my own – how much time could I spend searching it for insects, nesting birds and hedgehogs?Best of all were the apple trees in full blossom, which is a remarkable

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