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the pots of bedding.I've a second pot-grown acer as a companion, this time a finely split-leafed Japanese maple with a lovely green leaf. Both plants can suffer from leaf scorch during bright midday sun.So, for tiny gardens think tiny trees in pots

-purpose for this particular job). On my arrival I was confronted with beds of stunning primulas, all at their peak.Colour is lacking at the end of February as we wait for the early bulbs to bloom. A few brave grape hyacinths are showing colour, and daffodils surge higher

of long thin borders (I wrote about its birth about a year and a half ago). Some of the beds have worked really well, I think, like this arrangement of Phlomis amazone and Seseli libanotis. The central part, surrounding a pond, has some wonderful grass

't need pruning, this old favourite is covered in billowing deep-blue flowers from early July to the end of September.Ceanothus 'Autumnal Blue'The most reliable of bedding plants for containers, these will bloom right through to the very end of summer

When the first hard frost struck in my garden at the end of October, it was the kiss of death for so much of the long-lasting summer colour. Busy Lizzies crumpled instantly, summer bedding packed up shop, and leaves started falling from the trees

the last quarter and the new moon.Plant leafy crops in period one, fruit crops in period two, root crops and perennials in period three, and take a break in period four (do housework, hoeing, pruning, making raised beds. Don't plant anything unless you

stuffing the plant into a polythene bag and spraying it inside the bag).Couch grass (sometimes known as twitch) has also appeared from somewhere and is colonising a couple of beds. It has long bony looking runners with amazingly sharp points that can

a line of the wonderful tall grass, Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Windspiel', that by this time of year has turned the colour of ripened corn. It should stand for at least another month but looking at the plant now it looks as if it got

from slugs and snails) and planted them out when they had a good clump of leaves. I always grow lettuces in a well-drained (and less slug-prone) bed close to my shed, so I can keep an eye on them.I tend to try a few new lettuce varieties each year

savoury plant in the beds, it also grows very well in cracks in the old concrete path.Later, while I'm admiring the constant nectaring business, I see there are several species. The red-tailed, Bombus lapidarius, is there in numbers, as too is the white