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In order to get the best out of your garden plants and crops, it’s worth testing your soil pH. In the UK this ranges from 3.5 (strongly acid) to 8.5 (strongly alkaline), with 7 being neutral. Most fruit and vegetables prefer soils that have a

for another list...My favourite late-flowering perennial plants, in no particular order:Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' - about 75cm high. Flowers until at least mid-October.Agastache 'Blue Fortune' - not one one for very cold parts

of Isatis leaves will produce about 2 grams of dye so in order to colour more that a small handkerchief you need to grow a fair few plants. It is a gorgeous colour though.Jekka also told me that, traditionally, there was a fair bit of urine involved

pickings throughout June and July, possibly longer. The heat has brought the crop on earlier this year, so I'm not sure that they'll last into August.If you don't have any soft fruits then check the catalogues now, and order for autumn delivery and planting

.FERA carries out masses of environmental research, and their York site is filled to the gunnels with people I feel very at home with, including plant pathologists and entomologists. There are spores and bugs galore.It was great to meet Phil Jennings, also known

it's good to be getting something back into the lovely, clean beds. Hopefully, with the belated April showers we've been having lately, the seedlings will be up and away at a rate of knots, and young plants will be covering the ground before the weeds

throughout the country: not all big public gardens but mostly private gardens varying from rambling rectories to little, plant-stuffed back yards in towns and cities.The launch allowed the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) to flag up some cracking gardens

-forgiving whiteness has gone and left behind it … well, a lot of soggy, mucky chaos. Hedges are staggering slightly after supporting all that weight and my flower borders look about as attractive as roadside ditches. I tend to leave my herbaceous plants standing

I have just ordered a whopping great pile of manure. A couple of weeks ago we finished cutting everything back and hunting down any perennial weeds that were hiding beneath the plants in readiness for mulching: had it not snowed we would have

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