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Free and easyFavouring a more laid-back approach to gardening, I love plants that self-seed with abandon. Here are a few of my favourites...Find out how to collect allium seedsSelf-seeders are the opportunists of the plant world. They may

. Use them to fill gaps in summer borders or grow larger quantities in rows on the allotment or veg plot. Stagger sowings by a few weeks to give you a regular supply of blooms.Many of the best summer blooms are easy-to-grow hardy annuals and, with seeds

. The ideal soil (loam) has equal amounts of all three, which make a fertile, free-draining soil that's easy to dig. There are six main types of soil: chalky, clay, loamy, peaty, sandy and silty. To test your soil, the first thing to do is take a look

Onions are easy and cheap to grow, whether from seed or from heat-treated sets. Follow our step-by-step guide, below, on growing onions from seed (skip to Step 3 for instructions on planting out sets).Onion sets are miniature or immature onions

outwards and buried to prevent tunneling. Failing that then you have to look after your plants until they are big enough to take care of themselves - easy if they are trees or shrubs but not so easy with herbaceous stuff.If anybody has any other ideas

perennial weeds; before the garden really gets going it is quite easy to track them down. Also the ground is soft enough to winkle out the clinging roots of buttercups or the long parsnipy tap roots of docks. The nicotine yellow roots of nettles are easy

easy when I was a child. I always had a list of things without which life would be unbearable. One particular Christmas (around 1966), I remember the choice was between a Johnny Seven or a Secret Sam. Both were complicated weapons systems that fired

to town and urban spaces, and as a hardy annuals they are easy to grow from seed. Their popularity has also made them a favourite for cover mounting on Gardeners' World Magazine over the years – you may even be growing our '20th Anniversary Mix' sweet pea

flowerheads in summer. It will perform equally well in a sunny border or a container.Jarava ichuThis easy-to-grow bearded iris, with butter yellow and lavender petals, will flower from late-May to mid-June.Iris 'Lullaby of Spring'This short, smoky yellow iris

There is a range of easy-to-grow, climbing annuals that will flower non-stop from June until the frosts, producing striking blooms and sculptural leaves. Because they grow 1.8m to 3m or more in a season, half the joy is amassing so much plant from