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.Legend has it that the best grape vines should be planted on top of the buried corpse of a horse (or a sheep if you are short of horses). Fruit trees grow well if a dead chicken is included in the hole. Hamsters, guinea pigs and budgies will also work well

remember sitting with a group of friends in a student bedroom watching Geoffrey on television. So, 'growing your own' is the latest gardening trend, is it? Well Geoffrey was certainly inspiring the nation with Mr Smith's Vegetable Plot in the 1970's

I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice but, just in case it has, I feel it my bounden duty to point out that there are all sorts of things quietly growing out there. The months of inactivity are drawing to a welcome close; it's time for a general

will actually be doing some gardening while rubbing shoulders with the public. Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Alys Fowler will all be around at various points.With a surging interest in everything edible, the Grow Your Own stage will also prove a popular destination

It comes as no surprise to me that slugs and snails have been voted the most-hated garden pests in the Gardeners' World Awards. Surely no garden in the country can be immune from their devastating activities, unless it's a garden covered in concrete

heathers are Calluna vulgaris and Erica cinerea. These, and many other varieties need an acid soil, although many of their relations (notably E. carnea and E. x darleyensis) will grow in any half-decent garden soil. The RHS has good heather collections

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

’re dead, but just that their tops will have been knocked back. Hopefully roots in fairly dry compost, and insulated from cold, will survive and start growing next spring when conditions warm-up.My colleague Lucy on Gardeners' World magazine looked very fed

January already: Christmas neatly tucked away and another year of fabulous gardening stretching away ahead of us. The beginning of the year is the time for fresh starts and change but, rather than pestering you with annoying resolutions which few

and is somehow part of the emotional attachment I have with my garden.So, apart from investing in heavy duty locks and lobbying allotment committees to improve security measures, what can we do? Growing prickly hedges such as barberry along our boundaries