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of Colonsay, Colonsay House Gardens. It is not the only garden: there are a few smaller gardens on the island - including what must be one of the most spectacularly sited vegetable gardens in the world: they have used stones set on end as fencing (here is a

barely seen any rain at all.In drier parts of the UK, plants are bursting into flower earlier, bees and butterflies are out earlier, and the ground, which should be warm and wet from April showers, is parched. All this and some areas are still getting

, but your neighbours will hate you.The news broke this week that a Plymouth resident has upset all of his neighbours by planting 16 leylandii trees in his front garden and leaving them to grow, completely obscuring the house. At one time the hedge would have

very favourite garden destinations. I love seeing what we would regard as house plants growing with weed-like vigour on the roadside, or trimmed to form a hedge. Poinsettia always looks wonderful there, not to mention the tangled jungles of Opuntia

do often sponge algal films off foliage, but as it isn’t actually harming the plant, I’ll leave it for the rain to clear off during the next heavy downpour.)I’ll arm myself with a stiff yard broom and set to work on the steps, paving and stepping

After a hectic day recently, I lay on the grass for several minutes, gazing up at my lovely Magnolia stellata. The tree was a 30th birthday present from my sister, which she bought as a good-sized plant. I planted it, but we moved house a few years

of coming up with the name of the plant, I was instantly transported back to the kitchen of the house I grew up in. On red floor tiles just inside the pantry, next to bottles of squash and my mum's wine-making kit, was a brown ceramic vase containing dried

at the nearest car boot sale. I was devastated at the time, but quickly accepted it as an inevitable part of allotment life.Garden theft isn't just perpetrated by lone opportunists. Gardening is big business, and so is 'organised' garden crime. Rare plants

of demonstrations and activities going on. Bunny Guinness demonstrated her 'limbering-up-for-gardening' exercises; a poor, unfortunate soul attempted to convert a very stubborn Eric Robson to the art of flower arranging; Anne Swithinbank ran her house plant clinic

.Native Americans used to place small fish in planting holes and you can get the same effect by burying fish scraps in trenches before planting.Pigeon manure is among the richest of manures and was particularly popular in Persia where they kept pigeon houses