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Due to the wet weather of the past week, I haven't been out in the garden much. The snails, however, have been very active; I can barely walk to the front gate without the familiar sound of snails crunching underfoot. Most of the plants we grow

. The first is relatively straightforward: the mullein moth caterpillar. These are stripy chaps that start quite skinny, but rapidly become as fat as witchity grubs by eating verbascum leaves at a terrifying rate. I grow the gorgeous Verbascum bombyciferum

host of fabulous cultivars of B. davidii. Among my favourites are B. davidii 'Royal Red' and B. davidii 'White Cloud'. They'll all grow to the height of about 4m and will attract clouds of butterflies.

is called the 'June drop') leaving only the strongest. This is a self-preservation exercise to prevent the weight of the fruit snapping the branches. The remaining fruit then carry on growing and ripening until autumn.There is, however, one extra thing

grannyish but quickly slapped myself and stopped being too much of a poncey designer. Especially as I notice that the nursery is run by a woman with a pierced eyebrow and visible tattoos: not the image one expects!True, my grandmother did grow them

't just about not spraying with pesticides and making compost. Being organic is also about creating viable and balanced habitats in which you can grow the plants you want with the help of wildlife (I think I'll come back to this topic in a future blog