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, laying lawn edging and root pruning cordon fruit trees (while, apparently wearing a pair of white cricket trousers and a double-breasted blazer!). The best tip is for a slug trap: "take an old photographic negative and a piece of tin. Solidified

favourites like nigella and clarkia. She also grows masses of vegetables and some fruit – a short row of Autumn Bliss raspberry canes and a couple of blackcurrant bushes are all she's got room for.Laura's very much a self-taught gardener. Over the years, she

on the apple trees is already showing its colours and the fruits are changing shade as they ripen. The pumpkins and butternut squashes, too, are showing a hint of colour and the sweet corn tassels have turned brown at long last, which means they should

is an obvious choice: native British trees don't just absorb CO2, but provide food and shelter for wildlife. Composting helps reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill and journeys to take it there, and growing your own fruit and veg reduces food waste

-trained fruit trees. Looking at a well cared for tree is like admiring the work of a skilled craftsman - with the advantage of knowing that someday soon it is not only going to flower but produce something edible. Not something that can be said about most crafty

tree called 'Fondante d'Automne' which has lovely flowers, fantastic autumn colour and not very good fruit. Still two out of three is OK, I suppose.These are the catkins and buds of Betula jaquemontii and, finally, lime buds. Lime leaves (Tilia x

spaces, and many tomatoes are positively smothered by the rampant squash plants, all helping to increase the mugginess of the air around those ripening fruits.I'd love to know how you have fared with the dreaded blight on your spuds and tomatoes this year

'll even fruit without a fortnightly high-potash feed (although more chillies will be produced if the plant is fed). I gave a plant to my cousin last year, expecting it to be dead within weeks. In September he sent me a photo of a chilli-laden plant, along

year. I like the seasons - I look forward to them and patiently wait for them, denying myself fruit until I've first tasted that which I've grown. For me, strawberries and raspberries are a summer luxury. I don't want them in November, not from

tufted economy blend.Last year was not a good year as there was too much rain and general bleariness for anything much to thrive. Vegetables drowned and fruit never really came to much, roses were battered by showers and meadows were flattened. Thank