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I do love the garden in October - especially in the sunshine. In the early Spring it is all about hope and waiting: all that mulch and neatly tidied brown border. A month or so later and there is green stuff and bulbs all over the place. Then we

and groundsel. The weedkiller, aminopyralid, has been ingested by farm animals and hasn't broken down. It's still present in the manure, which, when laid as a mulch or incorporated into soil, can affect garden crops.Symptoms to look out for include distorted

mulches and organic matter. Returning nutrients to the soil is vital for healthy plant growth and decent yields, improving soil structure and moisture retention. If in doubt, stick to home-made garden compost, leaf mould or composted green waste from

of advice would be to give them a good bit of garden rather than a shady bit of dry ground, and also don’t expect them to be that interested once they hit adolescence. By then there are other, more interesting, distractions than mulching the courgettes.

measure. This means that I must keep the hens away from the border when they’re roaming free. There is, it would seem, nowhere better to find hen snacks than in carefully mounded mulch.We might not have experienced the last of the cold weather

, with new shoots spreading outwards from the fringes. The soil they're growing in gets more impoverished as its nutrients become exhausted.So, what can be done? I do spread a good mulch of compost over the soil around them each year, and this is gradually

sexy new haircut.There was an interesting mix of show gardens, including the rather strange Garden Before Time, which consisted of a giant pterodactyl towering above prehistoric plants mulched with coal. Favourites included 'My Very Local Veg Garden

and dry in the compost bin.So instead of removing plant debris, digging over borders and mulching this weekend, I'll be out foraging leaves from the park to top up my leaf piles, planting snake's head fritillary bulbs, moving foxglove seedlings and taking

well during the summer. In colder areas protect the rhizomes from frost from January onwards with cloches, horticultural fleece or a thick mulch of straw or compost.Growing tipsLift and divide schizostylis rhizomes from mid- to late-spring every two

, or show off their blooms with decorative mulches in pots.Our favourite varietiesThe rose-pink flowers of T. platystigma bear traces of orange running through the petals, becoming clearer towards the margins. Height 60cm.Tulipa platystigmaThis species