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.But the downside of the cold weather is that my compost heap has stopped decomposing. The pile of fruit and vegetable peelings and garden waste has shown little sign of decay in the last few weeks. The banana skins turn black very quickly, and the local badgers

Like many gardeners at this time of year, I can normally be found in the garden with my head in a bag of compost. I'm not hiding from the taxman, or even two noisy kids - I'm just trying to get some seeds sown. Sowing seeds is a task that should

I've been spring cleaning. The greenhouse, of course, not the house. Somehow the lure of the compost and seed trays was much greater than that of the vacuum cleaner and duster.Our heavy clay soil has been sodden and unworkable, so the greenhouse

placed the leafy cylinders back in some similar compost and covered them up. We’re hoping our digging around them didn't damage the eggs or grubs, and that in 2009 we'll all be able to see them hatch. Hopefully I'll find some circular holes in the foliage

besides. They're not pre-packaged salad mixes from the supermarket, but home-grown in my greenhouse. And if you don't have space for a greenhouse don't worry - a windowsill is perfect. All you need is some compost. I reuse seed-sowing compost from

in a part of the world so well adorned with wildlife and wildflowers. But only last year was I on my hands and knees, weeding out violets from paving cracks, stone walls and even the compost of potted plants. I wonder how many perfectly good plants we

Yesterday at a Gardeners' Question Time recording it was amazing to hear that Eric's Cumbrian plot had only had 5cm of snow. Not so here in Hampshire. The snow is 45-60cm deep and the icicles more than 1m long!What have I been up to during the snowy

shouldn't carry on spreading. But I'm off to the plot now, armed with a big black bin liner and a pair of secateurs to cut off the haulms before the problem spread to the, as yet, untouched varieties. Now of course I can't compost it so I wonder if I

plants that'll go in to several containers...and then could end up as full-sized gorgeous plants in my garden...all for just over £1.00 each. Crazily good value; I just hope whoever propagated them got a decent cut. But how could they have at that price

or Kenya.I sowed the delicious variety ‘Purple Tee-Pee’ 15cm apart in large, 60cm pots, filled with recycled compost from earlier sowings and the dregs of various bags that were lying around. The pot was situated on the path of my greenhouse