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Christmas is fast approaching, and perfume houses will soon be tempting us to buy fragrances for our nearest and dearest. No doubt they'll do a roaring trade, but to my mind natural perfume can't be beaten. Fragrant plants and flowers add another

I've just enjoyed a relaxing hour, cup of tea in one hand, binoculars in the other, gazing out of the window at my garden. Yes, some plants are showing signs of growth, there's still bloom on my winter-flowering viburnum, and the squirrels are still

These cold, dark winter evenings are costing me a small fortune. Not in heating costs for my greenhouse, or for electricity to light up the front of the house with decorations bright enough to be seen from the International Space Station.No, it

an expert, and choose the right plant for the position and space you can provide.Reading news of declining house sparrow populations over past years, I only have to look out into my garden to watch them flock to my bird table each day. And which plants do

of the house. The wall faced north, so they didn't receive any direct sun at all.Survivors are valuable garden plants, and always worth recommending to others, so when I come across sites with similar challenges, then Anemone japonica (which we now need to call

Breathe deeply as you enter my sitting room this month and you’ll take in the powerful, almost intoxicating fragrance of paper-white narcissi.I planted the Narcissus papyraceus bulbs last autumn, in a glass bowl layered with gravel. All I've done

Queen Mother. Olga, the new head gardener, is just coming to terms with such an exposed garden, designed in part to provide cut flowers and produce for the house. Tall walls and dividing hedges are essential to create shelter, and new planting projects

grow it in a border close to the house, where I can admire it in full bloom from my kitchen window. It has rich yellow cup-shaped blooms that fade to pale yellow, a colour rarely found in old roses. The upright habit of 'Graham Thomas' means it stands

garden, and out of sight of the road or passers-by. Access to my garden is via gates on either side of my house, and both are locked and secure.However, the door to the shed itself remains shut but not locked!I feel an Easter job coming on … to fully

and relevant. Now, I accept that Barnsdale started off as a bare field when Geoff Hamilton first started  - much like Greenacre - but Geoff's field adjoined his house. It was also his garden, and not simply a rented piece of land. That makes a big difference