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to be admired, and I'd grow it for its leaves alone. But at this time of year it adds a new dimension by producing erupting clouds of dainty forget-me-not blue flowers. Gorgeous! My brunnera grows alongside ferns and foxgloves, and my oriental hellebore

; for the first time I've been able to run an extension to my greenhouse to power an electric propagator. When temperatures all around have fallen, the propagator maintains a warming 20Ë?C, perfect for germinating most seeds.I always grow an assortment of chillies

the last couple of years the palm has become steadily more miserable looking; its leaves have lost their gorgeous green sheen and taken on more of a yellow hue instead. And it's practically stopped growing.Finally I grasped the nettle (actually

by growing some of their favourite plants: cosmos, sunflowers, candytuft, lupins and foxgloves. And blackfly also love nasturtiums, so if you plant them around your broad, runner and French beans, they'll act as a 'sacrificial crop', suffering the onslaught

It's strange how some wonderful plants just pass you by. I've only just discovered a lovely low-growing perennial called Verbena rigida. As is the way, I was buying paint at B&Q and just happened to walk through the plant area when I came across

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

trees for a small garden. The current wave of interest in 'grow your own' should see even more people including fruit trees in their gardens, and the coming months are a perfect time to plant them. Last winter I made space for a 'family' apple tree

in place when I'd originally intended to grow summer varieties, are still there, so I think I'll probably tie the fleece onto the top wire, pull it down over the crop and anchor the other end into the ground. Lucky the wires are there, otherwise I don

years ago). My son calmly asked me why we had bladder-wrack growing on the drive when he thought it should be on the seaside! The greeny brown bobbles looked just like that very common seaweed and at first sight I could see exactly what he meant