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right away.3. Insulate outside tapNot only must I turn off the stopcock to my garden tap to isolate the water supply (mine is almost hidden behind pipework under the kitchen sink), but I must wrap insulation material round the brass tap itself. Again, I

It’s always great fun making Gardeners’ Question Time programmes. Sometimes it comes with an added bonus when we do a feature special, like when I took the opportunity to go and visit the labs at FERA (Food and Environment Research Agency) in York

Are you snowed under with seed catalogues? It seems that even before the summer stutters to an end we have to start thinking about next year.I don't usually grow much in the way of annuals in my garden (apart from dahlias and poppies, of course

My two compost bins are being very productive. As well as yielding their first crop of usable compost, now spread over back and front gardens to great effect, they are also home to a heaving mass of wildlife. Every time I open the lids a great cloud

it was more of a slug hunt rather than a bug hunt, as the cold drizzle set in for most of the day. So when a local gardener brought out her bottle of beetles, she was just joining in the fun of it all. Of course, they were rosemary leaf beetles, Chrysolina

. It was on one such former orchard that my hosts had put their house. I spent many happy hours between pre-wedding social engagements, mooching about outside. The 'garden' was little more than a cleared paddock, roughly mown by tractor-drawn brush cutter a few

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

hat of clear plastic bag over the top to keep in the moisture. They should germinate on the kitchen windowsill, between the cookery books and the fruit bowl.I can feel the gardening season revving up into the next gear. By this time next month, I

.It's far more relaxing, and you can do it in the comfort of your own home. What exclusive new varieties will I discover for patio pots, what will tempt my appetite in the kitchen garden, and which plants will steal the show next summer?Well, I'll just

Dr Hessayon recommends spraying turf with worm killer, which seems a bit strict for a domestic lawn. Mostly, however, we encourage worms to colonise our borders in order to aerate and feed the soil; all that mulch which we heap upon our gardens