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Do you remember the first plant you ever grew in your own garden? Not the mustard and cress or sunflower that you nurtured in a little patch of your parents' gardens but the first plant that you grew just for yourself?I found some ancient

then the air was positively dripping. So, I'm amazed at just how little blight I've seen on tomatoes or potatoes.There was some blight on a few of the potato varieties I've been growing this year, but even then the brown patches on the leaves remained as tight

When I was a child pumpkins were alien and exotic. I read about them in the Peanuts cartoon, in which Linus spent long nights in the pumpkin patch at Halloween, waiting in vain for ‘The Great Pumpkin’. It never came.As the American version

.Don't forget to bring your house plants back indoors before the autumn frosts.More summer planting suggestionsPotting up a summer display of scabious and thrift.Creating a summer cutting patch.Growing summer-flowering plants to attract bees.Planting ideas

.Runner beansVarieties such as ‘lollo rossa’ and ‘Salad Bowl’ can be picked a few leaves at a time as they are needed, leaving the rest of the plant to keep growing. This lettuce is good for tubs or a small salad patch, also as edible edging for a potager.Cut

.Some plants need moving, some need supporting, some need feeding, some need pruning. Many just need sowing.I need to cut the lawn (we don't have a mower so we do this on our hands and knees with shears.) Luckily it's full of dead patches so it shouldn't take

, and keep my fingers crossed. Will I be cutting into sweet, juicy melons later this summer?Just one problem has come to light this week. One of my melon plants is developing the characteristic white patches of powdery mildew on its leaves. If this spreads

. But the reality is that so many artichokes sold in this country are old and tough.Artichokes do take up a lot of space - about a metre per plant. But if you love their taste, growing your own is the only thing to do.  If you don't have a vegetable patch

for the frogs, slugs, snails and other frog food. I'll let my borders rot down into themselves.Following Richard's advice I've also ‘created’ a jumbled pile of pots (it looks hideous), I’ve left straggly clematis stems unclipped and there are plenty of patches

butterfliesAll you need to make nettle beer is nettles, sugar, water, yeast, an orange, a lemon and cream of tartar. There are plenty of nettle beer recipes online.Nettle beerTo make nitrogen-rich nettle feed, cut or crush the nettles into small pieces