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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

, or a late opening of goatsbeard flowers either. It was the noticeable absence of 747s turning on their final approach into Heathrow. Only a serious change in the wind can do this. An hour later this new wind brought a wonderful gift - the swifts

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

to pruning. Some of you might remember the Fortnum and Mason garden designed by Robert Myers at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2007. The building at the back of the garden was covered with trained liquidambars and very effective it was.There are many reasons you

they put up a fight. That's why they're so successful.Bittercress continues to frustrate me, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Barely has a seedling had time to get established than it's flowering, then forming seed pods. And those pods have a trick up

on such small bits of card!Another is a series of fifty garden flowers ranging from delphiniums and water lilies to annuals like bright red salvias and candytuft. Each card has a bit of information and some hints about cultivation written by Richard Sudell - who

ways. The oldest variety I grow, and the earliest to flower, is 'St Ewe', which I planted directly into my border soil. Now I wouldn't claim my clay soil is ideal for camellias, which enjoy a lime-free and water-retentive soil, but this one has