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We have just clipped the yew hedge: actually, to be completely accurate, a very nice fellow called Simon clipped it as I was too busy being a poncey garden designer (a pity as I really enjoy hedge clipping but time has been a bit short recently

it cuts down your planting space. This is particularly important in a small garden.Don’t attach the panels to the posts until the concrete is properly dry.There are a number of different sorts of wooden fence. The most readily available are larchlap panel

many of my clever plans for the winter garden have come to nothing.Things that were supposed to look sparkly and incandescent in the low light and frosty mornings are now lying in a crumpled heap like laundry in a teenager's bedroom.In particular I have

them in a bin with some water in the hope that they will drown.In spite of all this sweeping I know that soon there will be baby ash seedlings popping up all over the garden. They are fine if you get them early enough but they don’t half grow fast when

and kept below their normal height. They're not much good if you're looking for flowers, but for sheer well-cut elegance you can't really go wrong. You know the sort of thing: yew hedges with razor edges, parasols of pleached lime and frost-dusted box

I'm sitting on a train as I write this, something I do more frequently than I used to, in an effort to cut back on the number of miles I drive each year. One of the best things about taking the train is being able to gaze, semi-comatose, through

and their exuberance. By 'big' I mean something that dwarfs its neighbours and reaches at least 2m high. I have five such plants in my garden.The first is Inula magnifica. I can see the cheerful, shaggy yellow flowers from my office and they never cease to amuse me

to inject a note of optimism the second picture, below, is of the same area in May - so all is not lost).Now is the time start the big chop back in readiness for the spring. Over the next few weeks I will be cutting back pretty much everything, pruning roses

I have to admit that, from a practical point of view, this blog post will not have a lot to offer to anybody who gardens in towns and cities. But, rather than turning away in disgust, I would like you to come along with me purely out of interest

that one of the most satisfying things in gardening is a well built, well maintained compost heap, but it is a bit much when people get smug about what is really just a pile of rotting vegetation. I do not claim to be an expert but what we make ends up