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the pretty ones, leaving the others to grow to gargantuan proportions.Broad beans need picking regularly to ensure the plants keep flowering and producing beans, so mine have inevitably stopped cropping. The stems are laden with pods so large they're getting

easily, like mustard and cress, so I always sow them straight away. Just sprinkle onto the surface of moist compost, and don't cover them. The seedlings are tiny, so let them grow to a manageable size before pricking them out.Left to their own devices, it

they have been for the last ten or twelve weeks. I felt all the more smug when I saw the price of three none-too-sprightly looking organic courgettes in the supermarket yesterday, which is testament to the fact that each and every one of us should grow veg

were filling in large holes! We raked fine sandy soil over the damaged areas, so hopefully the grass will soon grow back. The deeper holes were filled in and reseeded, and then raked over. It was nearly dark by the time we finished, and the lawn (as

.I planted them into a well-firmed bed, which is the key to growing good sprouts. A loose soil leads to 'blown' open sprouts rather than nice, tight little buttons.I've also earthed up the stems as they've grown, which keeps them firmly rooted in the ground

In two large pots I am growing big white lilies (lets not talk about the dapper scarlet lily beetles and their repulsively slimy offspring at the moment - too depressing) and a luscious deep red dahlia called Arabian Night. Around the feet

: there seems little point in weeding much (the nights are too cold for most annual weeds to bother with seeding themselves), why bother to tie back a sprawling plant when you are going to cut them all down anyway soon? Even the grass stops growing quite

Parts of my garden have resembled something of a battleground this year. Why is it that all my favourite plants and crops have their very own pest to contend with? Grow lilies and you'll be hard pressed not to find lily beetle munching them. My

that it's stopped and I've dried out - horribly dismal. And what's more it stopped me heading up to the plot for a good clear up session after the frosts.You see I love a good tidy up! The frost will have turned everything that was still attempting to grow

), climbers that need support (like roses) and shrubs that can be persuaded to do what you tell them to do (like ceanothus).I decided on the pyracantha (a variety called 'Mojave') and chose to grow it into quite disciplined espaliers. Ten years later