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't appreciate is that bindweed has a mission … to invade, occupy, and overtake! Bindweed may look lovely in the countryside, but it's not a garden plant to be encouraged. And just for the record, the No.1 weed in Scotland is ground elder (with bindweed in 4th

cultivated ground, compost in pots, paving, walls, vegetable plotsall year roundMore advice on removing weedsPineapple weedCleaversDandelionGround elder

sturdy wooden stakesSledgehammerBow sawStrong wireall year round1 dayClear the area where you're going to put the compost bin and, if necessary, level the ground using a spade or a rake.Take a pallet and stand it on its long edge to form the back edge

into nightmare country. Other plants that I think are dreadful include Rosa Masquerade (rather like an eruption in a fruit salad factory), almost all ruffled Iris, Heuchera Caramel (repellent flaccid toffee coloured leaves), variegated ground elder (a con

Prune out old stems of elder (Sambucus)Cut back last year's buddleia stems to ground levelHard prune trees that respond to pollardingFlowersPlant onion sets in modular trays of compostRepair netting on fruit cagesContinue forcing sea kale and chicory

to trace, although the little leaves are vicious stingers.The Grandes Dames of the weed world in my garden, however, are bindweed and couch grass (I thank all divine beings that we have no ground elder in this garden). The former, in addition to its

it comes to vegetables I am on far less stable ground. It is my wife who holds sway over the kitchen garden and who dictates what, why and when: I just do what I am told. But I have been reading quite a lot recently about forest gardens and it is here

to cut everything to the ground and apply a generous mulch to feed the soil. Not being desperate to make extra work for myself (and being of an age when my back can be temperamental - unsurprising if you consider the amount of abuse it had to undergo when