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Stinging nettlesYarrowMeadowgrassField bindweed

, stilt-like legs and stiff T-shaped stance. I think it’s most likely the common bindweed plume, Emmelina monodactyla. I’ve got the tiny caterpillars chewing the bindweed leaves in my garden.There are about 40 UK plume-moth species, but as my colleague

Field horsetail is also known as marestail. Once established, it has roots that extend to 2m deep, and spreads by means of creeping rhizomes. The plant produces light-brown stems in late spring, topped with cone-like structures

. It spreads by sprouting from thick, woody rhizomes, and can grow 1.2m in one season. Winter is the only time of year that offers a reprieve, but for the rest of the year it's a plant that needs tough handling as soon as it appears. This weed is especially

what the mysterious scrambling plant with White trumpet like flowers was. As you have probably guessed, it was a fine specimen of convolvulus, or common bindweed.The next trauma to hit their nascent efforts was the cabbage white butterfly, which

with 'the far end'; a muddy, ill-defined area that's rife with bindweed and pieces of disintegrating old carpet. I rarely cultivate it as it's so difficult and weedy. By comparison, my raised beds are a sheer delight to cultivate. It takes no time at all

and weeds. Rosebay willowherb, tangles of flowering bindweed, brambles and bright-yellow ragwort. Profligate trees like ash and, in particular, sycamore crop up and create shady areas with the wrong sort of leaves that cause train operators so much trouble

the hours of darkness or when you are at work: never at the weekends.May your bindweed throttle itself.May your neighbour's cat be less generous with its toilette.May all your trees grow straight and true.May all your post-digging back aches disappear after

first venture into growing fruit and veg, and the many mistakes I made while progressing to the level I'm at today (pretty good, I think). It's been a steep learning curve.For a brief spell, aged 11, I had a vegetable patch of my own. My mother – a