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The whole world seems to be teeming with life at the moment: the birdsong is delightful, the snails are on the march (in spite of my discovering at least three huge hibernation areas during the winter) and the plants are growing at phenomenal speed

Are you snowed under with seed catalogues? It seems that even before the summer stutters to an end we have to start thinking about next year.I don't usually grow much in the way of annuals in my garden (apart from dahlias and poppies, of course

This is prime iris season: a few weeks when these hugely flamboyant flowers come into their own. I grow two different sorts of iris in my garden: the Siberian iris and the bearded iris. Siberian irises are smaller flowered, have thinner leaves

It's blackberry time - not those machines, without which many "suits" would feel emasculated, but fat berries swollen by rain and aching for crumble. The blackberry bramble is a weed, and the perfect example of a plant simply growing in the wrong

are never just out of reach. Be warned however, that tiny trees do not produce a lot of fruit. Rootstock M27 will support a tree that will grow no bigger than about ten feet. For more information try the Brogdale Horticultural Trust.If you're in a very

three good examples and then shut up (I'm sure you have other things to do with your time.)I grow Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Windspiel' as a hedge - most of the year it is quiet and well behaved but about now it begins to flirt outrageously

and would almost certainly treat any of our ants (No.4=) as cocktail snacks.We are unlikely to stumble across the giant Palouse earthworm. Though harmless - and endangered - it can grow to be about a metre long which is enough to give anyone a bit of a shock

and riddled with holes.However, one should not give up growing hostas just because they can be a little troublesome. Did David take one look at Goliath and wander off to the pub? Did Leonidas and his Spartans gaze upon the hordes of advancing Persians

to use wire or plastic netting stretched horizontally and supported by posts about 60cm high. The plants then grow through the netting. All very well, provided that you don't need to do much weeding - preparation is all. However, gardeners are nothing

I wonder how many of you out there grow mulberry trees? Probably not enough of you. I have vivid memories of the first mulberry tree I came across in the grounds of a big old house in Surrey.My recollection is not one of the great horticultural