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You can tell it is autumn, the grass is yellow. I've just come back from a pear-harvesting foray, and as I stomped through the scruffy grass in the field I looked ahead and saw numerous patches of miserable, yellow grass.I assumed the yellowing

brilliant year for sloes, many of them the size of damsons and looking seriously juicy. I'm about to go out and start the harvest, sure to come back with arms ripped to shreds by those mega-thorns, as no doubt I'll forget to take the gauntlet gloves. I have

of unwanted materials. But horseflies are a menace to horses and humans and no doubt a lot of other creatures too. Gardening has suddenly become a high-risk business - I seem to do more leaping about than weeding and sowing. We even have a house rule

wins.Before the introduction of the potato to Europe in 1536, the parsnip was a much more mainstream vegetable than it is now. Parsnips are pretty easy to grow by sowing directly into the ground around March and April - dig the ground well as lumps

for sowing next year's coriander crop. Allow the seeds to ripen fully on the plant before harvesting.In the greenhouse I save seed from chillies, tomatoes and sweet peppers. The rule of thumb here is not to save seed from F1 hybrid varieties, as their progeny

on one side so we junked it and my quest began again.There's a lot of debate over which is greener. To make an artificial tree involves a fair bit of plastic and it's obviously not compostable. But the harvest and transportation of real trees uses a lot

) – and produced a value for every crop. The main factors she considered were:1.  The length of time a crop is in the ground before being harvested.2.  The number of helpings you'd pick per square metre.Crops that grew quickly and produced high yields received a

) harvesting her first home-grown fruits a few months later.The one thing we had in common was early access to a garden. Would we be sat in this office without that privilege? Gardening doesn't just help heal temporary blips, it changes lives. That's why

with all the nutrients they need, and as the waste breaks down they'll get a fair amount of water too (saving me a job).My garden is far too small to grow pumpkins really, but I won't let that deter me. I'll drape the long, winding stems up and over