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One of the best things about visiting a new country is meeting its gardeners. Never mind the gardens, it's the people behind them that interest me. Wouldn't it be wonderful to go back in time and meet Christopher Lloyd or Vita Sackville

The warm weather has brought on a flurry of activity in gardens everywhere. At last, the longer daylight hours and a bit of full-strength April sunshine has pushed some life into my garden.Buds are fattening up well on many of the shrubs and trees

Small lawns needn't be plain and uninspiring. An emerald green, healthy lawn will give any garden a lift, big or small, and there's a lot you can do to keep it looking good - from choosing the right grass seed, to aerating. You can even make a

For the last couple weeks I've been on something of a 'grand tour' of South America. Along the way, I've visited many gardens and seen some interesting horticultural practices. This is the first in a series of four blogs, documenting the fascinating

Although, yes, technically it is a spider, I’m almost positive that nobody could really be scared of the zebra spider, Salticus scenicus. It lacks all those sinister characteristics that can cause unease among some people — it isn’t black and hairy, it doesn’t have long legs, it ...

looking like dog-eared lace doilies. Hostas seem to be the snack of choice for all molluscs.This problem is pretty much universal - except, it seems, at Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Hever Castle has a magnificent rose garden

if it ventures out again.There's something really special about seeing a lizard in the garden. It's almost as if they shouldn't be able to survive in cold, rainy Britain, and that they only belong in a more exotic world, somewhere hot and dry. But despite

, but the discovery in 2011 that small tortoiseshell numbers had gone down by 68% in 10 years was pretty shocking. It has always been received wisdom that common generalist ‘garden’ species, like the small tort, were protected from some of the frightening declines

ditch.I always smile when I see these. They live in the margins of the woodland adjoined to our garden, serving as a reticent link between the wood anemones and the full on fanfare of the bluebells. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Cardamine pratensis

Home-grown cucumbers are delicious, so it's well worth raising your own crop from seed. Cucumber seed needs warmth to germinate, and should be sown indoors during April or May.It's worth checking the seed packets before you buy and looking for varieties that produce all-female fl...