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terracotta pot for about six years now. Like any permanent planting I used John Innes No.3 loam-based potting compost, as trees need compost with real guts. Even so you'll need to feed them - my acer gets a weekly liquid feed through summer along with all

feed on pollen from the open flowers, and hopefully breed and lay eggs. Developing larvae then feed on aphids, acting as a form of natural pest control.When I experimented with the 'square foot vegetable plot' planting technique a couple of years ago, I

tortoiseshells this summer, but hardly anything special. It wasn't until I spent a few days in the Cotswolds recently that I spotted a red admiral feeding avidly on a white buddleja. Even then it was just one solitary butterfly, hardly the numbers you'd hope for

feeding frenzy day and night, unhindered by daytime sunshine, if you can remember what that looks like.But help is at hand. When I pop out to pick my salads each evening I usually disturb a frog or two among the leaves, finding their supper just as I

, not brown!It was all my own fault. I had a photography day planned in my garden to take pictures for the What to do now section in Gardeners' World Magazine. Autumn lawn care was on the agenda, so some nice practical shots of applying an autumn lawn feed

when they're going short of moisture on hot days by starting to droop. Secondly they need food, and I mix in a liquid feed at least once a week to top up reserves in the compost. And thirdly you must deadhead. This can be viewed as a chore

greenhouse cucumbers always succumb to red spider mite. Hostas act like a magnet to the local snail population.Well, I'm not having this! I've been fighting back, organically of course, especially on crops I'm going to eat or feed the family.How disappointing

mainly flies), but in the past I've seen wasps and tortoiseshell butterflies eagerly making the most of this final feed of nectar before hibernating.Fatsia japonica is an exotic looking evergreen shrub with large glossy, lobed leaves. Despite its tropical

produces quite a bag of potato and vegetable peelings, and wrapped in newspaper these can feed my compost heap.Yes, newspaper can be composted, and so can plain cardboard including corrugated boxes, tubes from toilet and kitchen paper rolls as well as egg

'm after - and I usually am - then my only option is to buy plants.With at least another two months of enjoyment to come I'll just keep an eye on watering from now on, adding a liquid feed about once a week to keep plants growing strongly. Then I'll brush