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The world of gardening overflows with obsessions, such as giant vegetables, lawns, compost, cacti and many others.One of the most extreme gardening obsessions is the art of bonsai. I was always a bit dismissive of this particular obsession until I

I don't believe it. I am incandescent with spluttering indignation. For the first time ever a molehill has appeared on my lawn.We've lived here for about 15 years. Before that the garden was a concrete farmyard, so this particular mole

(apologies to all those people standing ankle deep in post-flood sludge who probably don't need a smarty-pants pointing at the silver-lining).Lawns - because it has been well-nigh impossible to get the mower out of the shed, grass has grown much longer than

My daughter has just wandered into my office to ask "what is all that stuff growing in the lawn?". While not exactly a perfectly worded horticultural query it is a very interesting point. At the moment the grass is spattered with silver

topiary. In the winter they provide structure and add tone; in the summer they seem like benevolent aunts standing stiffly, but attentively, above a gambolling chaos of flower and lawn.You don't need a huge stately garden to use topiary. In my garden I

much universally agreed that worms are good news. The only objections come from those who strive for the completely perfect lawn — worm casts can cause a bit of trouble, especially to a perfect putt. In my late-1970s copy of The Lawn Expert, the great

plant family (Ranunculaceae), which contains such diverse plants as aconitum, hellebores, clematis and thalictrum. Anyway, we are mildly overrun by creeping and field buttercups. Creeping buttercups lodge in my lawn and many happy hours are often spent

arundinacea that laps around its skirts. As well as the yew hedge we also have a series of beech columns that are scattered about the lawn to serve three main purposes. Firstly to break up a dull expanse of lawn, secondly to create a series of frames through

in such ghastly conditions? To fossick around on either border or lawn will cause more damage than good. You could tidy the shed or do some useful work in the greenhouse, but some days are too miserable even for that.Sometimes it's OK to say "hang it all

, laying lawn edging and root pruning cordon fruit trees (while, apparently wearing a pair of white cricket trousers and a double-breasted blazer!). The best tip is for a slug trap: "take an old photographic negative and a piece of tin. Solidified