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in the packet. A balanced approach is probably best. Order seeds of those favourites that you know perform well and you won't be disappointed. I'll always try one or two new tomato varieties, but will always grow 'Gardeners' Delight'. Few, if any, can beat

their indulgence?Perhaps it’s not just the blackbirds, and others are to blame. Now I really don’t want to accept that all the wildlife in the garden I’ve worked so hard to encourage is now turning against me.What’s to be done? Large sheets of netting? Shiny

To Soicherons, Villars-Dompierre, in the Cote d'Or region of France for two weeks and the wildlife here is subtly different to that in East Dulwich. For one thing we are surrounded by large flowery meadows, hedges dripping with Mirabelle plums

was loading cans of paint and three new plants into my boot! Each plant had produced numerous short, branched stems topped by a characteristic cluster of violet/purple flowers. They've made their home in a large terracotta pot, planted simply as a group

: the desolation and heartbreak are soon forgotten.A large copper beech in my mother-in-law's garden fell over in February: this was a tree under which my children had crawled and we had eaten many, many Sunday lunches. It seemed that life would never be the same

Hamilton actually collecting leaves fallen from trees along his road, so keen was he to make the most of Nature's bounty. Well, why leave all this lovely material for the council to collect when you could use it in your garden?Shredded leaves will rot down

out of reach up in the foliage. I've only ever seen it once in summer, when dozens of specimens were flying about under a large tree in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. In winter it heads for the bark and is always there. I show them to the boy

There are wolf spiders all over my garden, so last week I had the Ivydale School Natural History Club semaphore signalling across the classroom. There is a connection … honest.These are great little spiders, very distinctive, unless you need to know

We are being invaded. I had not seen many harlequin ladybirds in my garden this year, but a few weeks ago I noticed that the larvae were climbing over the hedge from next door, in droves. This south-facing fence is covered with ivy and a

the best flavoured tomato, and to my mind it has to be 'Gardener's Delight'. They're deep red (surely tomatoes have to be red), bite-sized, juicy, sweet and full of flavour. If you haven't grown it then make a point of doing so next year.While 'Gardener