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of Isatis leaves will produce about 2 grams of dye so in order to colour more that a small handkerchief you need to grow a fair few plants. It is a gorgeous colour though.Jekka also told me that, traditionally, there was a fair bit of urine involved

will actually be doing some gardening while rubbing shoulders with the public. Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Alys Fowler will all be around at various points.With a surging interest in everything edible, the Grow Your Own stage will also prove a popular destination

refuse to cross.Copper rings were placed round the base of  'at risk' perennials and hostas in borders early in the year. These rings push down into the soil, then sit proud to form a barrier. At first they stick out like a sore thumb, but as plants grow

heathers are Calluna vulgaris and Erica cinerea. These, and many other varieties need an acid soil, although many of their relations (notably E. carnea and E. x darleyensis) will grow in any half-decent garden soil. The RHS has good heather collections

A few months ago I wrote about the annoying loss of my wisteria that suddenly turned up its toes. If you can cope with the tragic story then read it here.Anyway, I now have a very vigorous morning glory growing in its place while I try and work out

of year. I’d start sowing now but I don’t want weak, leggy, light-starved plants.I’ve never had a blank canvas for a garden before. It’s not a big garden, but there’s room enough for a few mistakes. I’ll be growing most plants from seed, and scrounging

in 1840. Obviously these things need time to grow and fruit so we then have a hiatus until 1857. On October 24th that year the RHS held their Grand Fruit Exhibition and, according to the report:"In the class of single dishes of dessert apple the first

in the months ahead.As always, the problem is predicting what weather our summer will bring. Dry, wet, warm, scorching, dull - who knows? So by growing a range of patio plants that relish different conditions I'm hoping at least some of them will thrive.

perfectly suited to the smaller garden. It has pure white star-shaped (hence the name 'stellata' as in 'constellation') flowers. It grows very slowly and will reach only about 1.5m after 10 years: given perfect conditions it will eventually top out at about

. But it is still well worth growing as the blossom is truly sensational and the leaves turn the colour of plums and bruised cranberries. It gets to about 15m which is bigger than the others, so perhaps your small garden had better not be too small.Maybe I'll think