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it makes me feel better. There are some exceptions to my love of tulips: some have got a bit above themselves and, instead of elegant bowls, look more like samba-dancing sea creatures. You may remember a lady called Gertrude Shilling who used to appear

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

and correct. I chose these particular colours to complement the Hare and Moon sundial. I'm still not certain that some of my herbs will make it to Chelsea. The woad plants are in full bud so they just might make the show. Equally the Jekka's Thyme plants

's plants. Creating a mock-up also allows us to only load plants that are actually required in the display. This minimises the damage to the plants and reduces the trips to and from London.I make a drawing and planting plan from the display and

-spring, covered in white flowers which, come the autumn, turn into deep red berries, or haws. They also make spectacular trees that reach about 5m in 10 years - although if left alone they can reach 18m. They're fantastically gnarly and twisted and every wild

with trepidation as I'd assumed it would be tricky, but it's as easy as can be. The trick is to ensure the garlic is dry, but still has flexible stems - sometimes garlic plants can have very tough, rigid flower stalks that make plaiting them difficult. Start

to disregard nettles as a useless (and delinquent) weed, as they can be very useful. Nettles make strong rope and tough cloth; up until the First World War the Germans harvested tonnes of nettles and made them into military uniforms (the sting is neutralised

vegetables also make good additions to the border - asparagus has gorgeous ferny foliage and artichoke flowers are bee magnets(Jerusalem artichokes are, however, excluded due to the possibility of indelicate post-prandial thunderings).Less obvious

I always leave my crop rotation plan to the last minute. I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I'm one of life's 'last minuters' and get on with doing my rotation plan at the eleventh hour yet again.However late, I do always make sure I

'm choosing mine. Of course, I'm keen to make them welcome, and a dense bed of mixed salad leaves provides the perfect summer residence.I know the word 'organic' is batted around a lot nowadays, but possibly not always fully understood. Organic gardening isn