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are available in most garden centres.Soil testing kitSamples of soil from around your gardenAll year round30 minutesIt’s important to choose a representative soil sample for testing. Avoid areas that have recently been treated with fertiliser, compost or other

to look forward to, and get me through this cold winter.In addition to all these jobs, there are still more leaves to rake up, old crops to clear and compost, veg beds to dig over, and then winter pruning to start...Now, what have I missed?

in the greenhouse:clear out clutterwash glazing inside and outget pots and trays readybuy seed sowing compostAnd then there's the propagator. I like to use electrically heated propagators with a thermostat for controlling the temperature. Mine also has a strip light

to be grown at higher altitude than they would normally grow.The terraces were filled with a mixture of sand, rock and topsoil, and fertilised with compost and guinea pig manure. Waterfalls were diverted to act as an irrigation system. They either trickled

? Bittercress lives up to its name. It’s often inadvertently imported on the surface of compost of potted young plants, but I don’t make it welcome. It's a pest, albeit a tasty one.Ground elder was the invasive thug we battled with in my childhood garden, though

the offending plants and what to do if you have them growing in your pond (remove and compost them, basically).Great. But what should we plant in our ponds to replace the offenders? My blog on dead frogs highlighted the need for oxygenating plants to maintain

the leaves, burns the logs and piles everything in the compost.Our Facebook poll suggests many of you are willing to compromise your gardening practices for wildlife. Christina Goozee suggests "it is about time we leeches on the natural world gave back

to dismantling and removing it, only to find around 15 frogs buried in the compost, asleep. I quickly covered them back up and left them alone again.Frogs residing in grow bags is nothing knew. I spoke to frog expert Jules Howard, who said grow bags make

where the nest was before I moved it after sundown. It was originally at the bottom of a compost bin, but when that was moved by the landscapers it exposed the nest beneath a pile of twigs. All I had to do was slide a spade under the nest and lift

(apart from the human, of course). In the south of the UK it's estimated that around 80% of bumblebee nests in gardens are predated by wax moth* - perhaps because nests under sheds, in compost bins and bird boxes are easier to find than those hidden