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: it is about 3m high and has gloriously scented tubular white flowers in Autumn, lush Autumn colour and bright red berries. Or Gentiana farreri, a trailing evergreen delight with flowers like sky blue fanfares? These are just two of the plants that Reginald

When I was at school we used to sing a song (to the tune of Men of Harlech) which went "Tramp up Snowdon, with our woad on. Never mind if we get rained or snowed on!" It was a sort of homage to our hardy ancestors running around painted with blue

Watching blue tits hopping in and out of one of my nest boxes at the weekend, I was reminded of another important job for this month. I need to open all the boxes around my garden and clear out the old nesting material.I know that one of my boxes

. In general, the bigger and plumper the bulb, the better. It needs to be firm and undamaged. If there's brown rot at the base of the bulb, don't buy it. Blue mould may appear on tissue that has been slightly damaged, but you can cut it away with a clean, sharp

Speedwell (Veronica spp) is an annual weed that spreads through lawns and borders, and has attractive tiny blue flowers. It spreads by seed in spring and autumn to form plants with strong tap roots. Speedwell appears in lawns as individual plants

Vinca major or periwinkle is a pretty, low-growing plant often with pale blue flowers that is used as a ground cover plant because of its mat-forming properties. However, it can be very invasive, and will rapidly spread around the garden

Summer prune wisteria, shortening all long wispy sideshoots back to about 20cmWater hydrangea bushes with a hydrangea colourant for true blue colour next summerTake clematis cuttings or layer new shoots by pegging them down into the soil to root

always sneak in a few 'fancy' varieties. This year we are trialling 'Blue Danube' for the first time (also known as Adam Blue). The skin on this early maincrop is dark, purplish, blue as the name suggests, but the flesh is white by contrast. Blue skinned

days, stretches of perfect white sand, bobbing seals, heathery hills, shining blue lobsters and lichened rocks. But, even though to the casual observer it may have seemed that I was lolling around all week doing very little, I have been diligent in my

. But the blue tits and great tits that I watch in the birch trees opposite just viewed my offerings with suspicion.On twelfth night, my partner and I took down our Christmas tree. It was still green and had most of its needles intact, so we moved it to our bare