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the supermarket or my allotment. In November I want mists, cooking apples, fallen leaves and hoar frosts please.My daffodils are showing signs of bursting into growth. I just hope the primroses don't start into bloom. What, then would I have to look forward

are fattening, the earliest pussies are appearing on the willows (faintly interesting fact: in the Sound of Music, Marta - one of the cute kiddies - chooses pussy willow as one of her favourite things) and daffodils are pushing relentlessly upwards. I am not so

colour, from frilly-knicker-pink and daffodil yellow, to navy blue ruffs and watery marmalade. Some seek to combine all the colours of an ice-cream shop in one flower - which I think is a bit of an insult to a noble stalwart. Personally, I prefer

. It is not one of those gardener-friendly hoverflies lauded for its voracious aphid-hunting larvae. Instead, its large glutinous maggots chew away at the insides of daffodil bulbs; at best leaving a large open wound in the damaged and weakened bulb, at worst

:Bluebell, bugle, crab apple, daffodil, flowering cherry and currant, forget-me-not (Myosotis), hawthorn, hellebore (Helleborus corsicus, H. foetidus), pulmonaria, pussy willow, rhododendron, rosemary, viburnum, thrift (Armeria maritima).Spring flowers

by planting bulbs. Try daffodils and crocus (tulips don’t grow well in grass) and don’t mow for six weeks after flowering, as this gives the leaves time to return nutrients to the bulb.Plant bulbs in your lawnBare patches can develop where a lawn is regularly

Blue bulbsBlue is one of my favourite colours in the garden. Every year, I eagerly scour catalogues and flower-show exhibits for new varieties of blue-flowering bulbs. Plan ahead so you can enjoy a sea of blue in February, before the daffodils

if we don’t get total extinction, we are likely to suffer biodiversity loss.Anyway, back to gardens. I had hoped to bring a live bumblebee into class. The very day before I had seen a huge buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) queen sniffing out the daffodils