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When we moved into our previous house, in Nunhead, there was some small, but well-established growth of Japanese knotweed in the back garden. It took four years of pulling up stalks and roots to get rid of it … at least I think we got rid of it

2cm between the top of the compost and the basket's rim. Water in well and leave it to drain before hanging in position.AdamGive your plants a regular once-over for pests such as aphids, and beware of snails, which can sometimes sneak in too

and (hopefully) entertaining shows with great gardeners like Pippa Greenwood, Anne Swithinbank, Alys Fowler and Kevin Smith on far ranging topics like orchids, pest control, thrifty tips and wildlife gardening.What a mix. In one show we could be describing

Has the snow been a good or bad thing for our gardens? Well, probably a bit of both, but I do live in hope that the cold weather has helped kill off a few garden pests. We've all had our fair share of snow over the past couple of weeks, with varying

're rarely troubled by pests and diseases and will self-seed readily all over the garden.Also popular is the Lenten rose hybrid, Helleborus x hybridus, whose flowers range in colour from immaculate white to virtually black, with nearly every shade of green

.Snails mostly feed at night; mild, damp conditions suiting them best. Go out with a torch and collect them by hand. Either re-home them on a patch of waste ground, well away from your garden as they have a homing instinct, or drop them in a bucket of hot, salty

Last week I mentioned that my broad beans were mysteriously free from their usual curse of blackfly. Strictly speaking, blackfly isn't a black fly, but a 'black bean aphid'.And while my broad beans may be free from the pest this year, they normally

is provided in a bird bath and large terracotta saucers on the patio, and I don't use any pesticides around my garden at all.But to be organic you do still need to control pests to prevent damage to both edible crops and ornamental plants. So when, in the last

, wild pear and buckthorn should cater for a wide range of species. A patch of long grass may encourage some species to breed, while a more relaxed attitude to 'pests' will go a long way to boosting caterpillar numbers in your garden.Moths, like bees

last recorded in 1897. I went back the next month and found it on the B. thunbergii bushes (the purple-leaved cultivar) in the ornamental gardens. Despite close attention to the many hedgerow bushes in East Dulwich and elsewhere, I've not seen it again