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This autumn I intend to add to my collection of fruiting shrubs for birds. I’m going to take advantage of the fact that plants are available more cheaply now we’ve hit bare-root planting season.Unlike pot-grown specimens, bare-root plants are dug

Following my recent blog Top 10 plants for a dream garden, I’m expanding the wishlist to include fruit and veg. I think it’s good to have a goal, no matter how distant it may seem.I like to think that if I have a decent-sized garden, with room for a

As container-grown fruit and veg start to crop, it's important keep your eye on the ball to ensure they stay productive. I've just harvested a small batch of French beans from my late container sowing as part of the Grow Yourself Healthy campaign

The Gardeners' World Grow Yourself Healthy campaign is all about growing your own fruit and veg - no matter how much space or experience you have. So it's great that one of the five growing plans supplied is dedicated to growing in containers. My

I recently spent a few days in Barcelona. The orange trees growing there were laden with fruit and looked stunning in the February sunshine. I loved seeing them growing outside in the streets, though admit to having felt a pang of jealousy on behalf

are commendable, if nothing else. There are friends who grow the plants indoors and wonder why they don't fruit (the flowers need pollinating); friends whose plants flower and fruit but the tomatoes rot at the ends (blossom end rot caused by irregular watering

Last year I had a great crop of chillies. I was so pleased with them that I couldn't bear to throw the plants on the compost heap when they'd finished fruiting. So I saved my favourite two to overwinter indoors as an experiment in chilli endurance

're usually grown in the UK as annuals, chilli plants (native to South and Central America) are perennial, so overwintering them shouldn't be a problem, if you live somewhere nice and hot. The theory is that if they survive winter, the plants flower and fruit

shallow to sustain a tree and it only gets sunshine for two hours a day. But if you have better conditions, now's a great time to plant bare-root apple trees. Many varieties will fruit within a couple of years, won't need much attention (unless you train

the crop. This is because they need a long season to flower and produce fruit, so if you sow them late, by the time they flower the season has started to change and it's just not warm or light enough for them to do well. They also need a good summer - low