Search - Articles

you know who you are.Don't hold me to it, but September is traditionally a warm month punctuated by regular showers. That makes it an ideal time to sow grass seed to start new lawns or repair bare patches. It's also the month to indulge in the mystical

wooden box filled with stems of sunflower, teasel and bamboo to make a solitary bee hotel.But that's no guarantee - wildlife can choose the most unpredictable places to live. This summer I visited some buff-tailed bumblebees nesting in a concrete path

, Epiphyllum anguliger, or rickrack cactus, which produces large yellow-white blooms at night, to attract bats. He describes the scent as a cross between lemon and bleach. He doesn't mind the smell, but his partner makes him put it outside whenever it flowers

enough fruit without ever making you despair of finding ways to eat them.May you never accidentally bury your favourite trowel and only find it a year later.May your pumpkins swell to the size of small hippopotami.May your carrots spit in the eyes

trellises so it doesn't clutter up the patio. It has a thick flesh though, making it more suited to sauces than salads, so I'll need to grow a salad type, too. 'Ailsa Craig' and 'Inca' were also given the thumbs up, while good old, reliable 'Gardener

, occasionally, I make diversions to see them. I always get a slight frisson looking at a strapping young tree that I once planted as an insubstantial whip.Although alder, willow and ash grow satisfyingly fast, I get more satisfaction from oaks than any other

Dulwich, but that lead seems to be a red herring, and Saprosites natalensis is sometimes found making small chewed burrows under cut logs or pieces of garden timber.When this supposedly South African species was found in West London it took quite a time

-worshipers, and the last few warm weeks have seemed perfect for them. As in bumblebees, it is only the mated queen wasps that survive the winter. When they emerge, they must each found a new nest from scratch. For several weeks, the queen must chew wood pulp to make

of the Royal Hospital preparing the most spectacular show on earth.Here are some snippets from my Chelsea diary:Tuesday 17 May: I went and loitered around during build up - where we found time to make our latest Three Men Went to Mow video. During build up

m tall, though. I'm still not sure how I'll stake an 8m tall plant.)I haven't done anything special with my sunflowers yet, I've only watered them. Now I'm upping my game: this weekend I'll be harvesting nettles to make a nitrogen-rich feed, which I