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Christmas is fast approaching, and perfume houses will soon be tempting us to buy fragrances for our nearest and dearest. No doubt they'll do a roaring trade, but to my mind natural perfume can't be beaten. Fragrant plants and flowers add another

Woodland floors carpeted with snowdrops do look beautiful, cool and calming, but their pure simplicity causes quite a stir in some quarters. A particular breed of person, the galanthophile, gets quite excited by this particular flower (a member

every day. All they need is some extra warmth to encourage them to burst into flower.Until that finally happens, I’m putting some of the empty summer patio pots to good use by packing them with primulas.And what a choice there is. Of course

, lettuce, rocket, mizuna, chives and other herbs.Strawberries are in flower, and good blossom on my apples, pear, peach and plum has now turned to promising little fruits. I think it's going to be a good year for fruit.Canes of raspberries, blackberries

companies is that most of the varieties come as mixtures. That means a packet contains a kaleidoscope of colours, and you can't tell what colour a plant will be until it actually flowers - fine if you want a flower bed reminiscent of Joseph's Amazing

... round shrubs, roses and flowers, along the base of the hedge, around fruit trees and bushes, and over the veg plot. Beans get a good, deep mulch of compost to help conserve soil moisture, too, but it's not just water retention that mulching is good for

specimens you're ever likely to see. The vision of a wide walkway arched with eucryphia in full flower will be imprinted on my memory forever.At the very top of the country we travelled the short distance from Scrabster to the Castle of Mey, home to the late

.Types to sow now include crimson clover, fenugreek, field lupins - even broad beans. They germinate and grow quickly and reduce weed growth. Flowering varieties even attract bees and beneficial insects.Nothing could be simpler, and the green manures help break

of the garden under piles of sticks and vegetation. They are unlikely to do any damage to healthy plants, but have clearly made a home in the soft centre of this plum tree. It's often said that plants flower well under some stress, and despite the obvious signs

into growth next summer they should flower again for me next autumn.