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Every few days I'm picking handfuls of gigantic, sweet, succulent blackberries. They're delicious, and if I have time in the morning before dashing off to catch my train to the Gardeners' World office in London, I rush down to the bottom of my

I’ve grown garlic successfully for years. But last summer was an exception, as the warm, wet weather provided the perfect conditions for garlic rust to thrive. Bulbous plants infected with rust usually wither and die early, before the bulbs have time to swell. This same pathogen ...

There's a lot more to a great salad than lettuce. Apart from a nice assortment of colourful leaves and a slight crunch if they're fresh, I'm not convinced that lettuce adds much more to salad than bulk!I prefer to grow salad leaves with real flavour like rocket, watercress, and a...

, sprinkled liberally with freshly ground pepper. Believe me, they are delicious.Although I'm loathed for making space for nettles in my garden, the sight of large patches of them brings joy to my heart. These spiteful weeds are the perfect host for four

simply sold as 'sweetcorn', 'tomato' or 'white potato' when you haven't a clue what the variety actually is? We can be far more discerning, as both consumers and gardeners, choosing and growing named varieties of crops that have the flavour and eating

At last, the warm weather has kick-started the season, and blossom is finally appearing.What a difference a year makes. Checking back at my diary, in 2012 the first 'Victoria' plum blossom opened on 28 March. One year on and the same plum tree only started blossoming last week, o...

Sending compostable waste to landfill is criminal, and while many gardeners do their bit to compost kitchen and garden waste, I'm sure many people could do more.I'm keen to recycle everything I can. This makes sense on two counts: it reduces

garden waste, worm bins harness the feeding habits of brandling or tiger worms. These fast-moving worms occur naturally in leaf litter and compost bins, and are different from earthworms. They feed on the kitchen waste my family generate, converting

I'm a great fan of wormeries. I feed all my kitchen waste to the hungry brandling worms inside the wormery bins, which turn it into wonderful compost.There's been a definite chill in the air for the past few days, so I'll move the bins into my

months later, and go on doing so for years. My kitchen windowsill now boasts six moth orchids in various colours, so at least two or three of them are always in bloom. The oldest is probably five years old, so must have produced 15 or more flower spikes