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Despite summer drought in my part of the East Midlands, my apple crop has been pretty good on most trees, but there’s just one problem. A much larger proportion of fruit than ever before has been pecked on the tree itself, resulting in small holes

I suppose I am very, very lucky to have known Geoffrey Smith and worked with him, but right now I just feel sad. Somthing is now missing for me, and indeed I know for many millions of us. Gardening has lost its Head Gardener.Geoffrey was better than

of Gardeners’ Question Time, talks endlessly about his apple press. His evangelism has converted me to presses, which are a wonderful way to use up those less-than-perfect fruits.You can press the whole apple, but I always chop mine in half, to check

To continue my (very) occasional series about interesting gardeners: have you ever heard of Johnny Appleseed? He is one of the folk heroes of American horticulture and has been immortalised not only in books but also in a song by the late, great Joe

to start early because although there is now a tremendous crop on some of the Prunus spinosa that we planted shortly after we moved here (the excuse was that it is of course, a great native hedging plant!).Those by the footpath will be cleared of all fruit

A friend recently showed me a photograph (left) of his rotting plum tree, with woodlice crawling around the affected area. Were the woodlice a pest, and how should he get rid of them? This reminded me of a plum tree in my own family garden when I

A long, long time ago when I first started writing a blog for gardenersworld.com, I wrote about the French naturalist, Philibert Commerson. It was, I stated at the time, episode one of an occasional series about interesting gardeners. I hadn

comprising entirely of edible fungi: more interestingly all the action is underground and only visible through a series of periscopes.2. Jon Wheatley and Anita Foy's vast show feature, the RHS Edible Garden. This includes fruit and nut orchards, wild plants

by Northwest, when Cary Grant was pursued by a menacing yellow aeroplane). In Britain, arsenate of lead was mostly used to control codling moths on fruit trees, although it was doubtless very tempting to any gardeners stricken with homicidal yearnings

When a letter starts "I must strongly protest at an article written by Adam Pasco…" then I do wonder what I've done wrong.Let me set the scene. You can't find much more of a bird lover than me. Just take a look at my garden, and the way I garden