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and herbaceous climber found in forest and thickets from Mexico to tropical South America." I'd love to see a picture of this. Suffice to say, my cobaea is on an obelisk in Cambridgeshire, and has been a star this summer.I've tried growing it from seed before

anything too deeply - especially plants like this violet that is making the effort to grow already.As I have said before I make a lot of compost here but there is never enough to mulch the whole garden so, every other year I buy a trailer load of the stuff

was the best sun in ages and these lovely bugs have started to appear, just as they always do at this time of year, sunning themselves on the south-facing fence, and the leaves of the ivy growing all over it. They won't stay that colour for long, and I expect

. However, I include it because it makes a good, narrow growing, multi-stemmed tree with stunning white, starry flowers in springtime followed by edible fruit and dark red leaves. Can stand a bit of wet.Number three: Sorbus hupehensis. A Chinese Rowan

and reuse in our gardens.For example you may discover a single plant that excites you, or an interesting and novel combination of two or three plants growing together - everybody has room for that. It may even be something as mundane as a piece of paving

and the weeds will grow through regardless!So, if I'm ever asked for a gardening tip for a new gardener it would have to be mulch, mulch, mulch. Home-made compost costs you nothing, so make as much as you can from kitchen and garden waste as well as leaves

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