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animals are transient, they come, they go; but wild plants ... they come, they stay, they get in the way, they interfere, and they compete with the flowers and vegetables we choose to grow. I think this attitude to 'weeds' is grossly unfair, so here

row, it rarely flowers well.The infection is said to have caused the hollyhock's declining popularity with florists. I can't help wondering, though, if the fact that few of us now have vases or hallways big enough for hollyhocks is also a factor

with trepidation as I'd assumed it would be tricky, but it's as easy as can be. The trick is to ensure the garlic is dry, but still has flexible stems - sometimes garlic plants can have very tough, rigid flower stalks that make plaiting them difficult. Start

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

for the past month or so, is to chop them down with a pair of shears. It works as it stops them flowering and seeding everywhere, which would really upset Ron, but it does mean they regrow. I normally get started with a good hoe in August but we haven't really

was loading cans of paint and three new plants into my boot! Each plant had produced numerous short, branched stems topped by a characteristic cluster of violet/purple flowers. They've made their home in a large terracotta pot, planted simply as a group

vegetables also make good additions to the border - asparagus has gorgeous ferny foliage and artichoke flowers are bee magnets(Jerusalem artichokes are, however, excluded due to the possibility of indelicate post-prandial thunderings).Less obvious

. This is the second volume - I am hoping to get the first for Christmas (hint, hint). A series of essays on a whole raft of fascinating subjects ranging from worms and guano to the Chelsea Flower Show and garden machinery (via plant hunters in China and Sir Walter

I've just enjoyed a relaxing hour, cup of tea in one hand, binoculars in the other, gazing out of the window at my garden. Yes, some plants are showing signs of growth, there's still bloom on my winter-flowering viburnum, and the squirrels are still

if not ingenious and I've seen delphinium flowers supported by bedsprings and clematis growing through old window frames. I'm sure there are other examples out there.It is really, really important to get any necessary staking done early, before plants have grown