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A lot of plants are, like stragglers from a hen night, not very good at remaining upright without some support. (Although they are much less likely to wear unnecessarily short skirts or disgrace themselves in shop doorways).I'm very lucky to live

planted in my children's plots, complete with home-made plant supports. According to my children "when the beans grow they can use the wigwams too", because "you did say that sweet peas help to encourage the bees to pollinate them".The wigwams are both

flurry of blackbirds that descend upon the plants and quickly strip them of berries (not the best photograph but they are very jumpy).I get a bit fernickety over supporting wires for climbers. I like them to be as tight as guitar strings, so I always use

, and robust enough to plant outside. Cobaea produces lots of spiralling tendrils for support, and these do a good job themselves, although I sometimes lend a hand to point shoots in the direction I'd like.Flowers were a while coming, but by August a succession

Everyone is looking for plants that offer great garden performance, and I think I've hit the jackpot with astrantia. I must have planted Astrantia major 'Roma' at the bottom of my lawn about eight years ago, and to be honest haven't given it any

, let alone a tree - I know of herbaceous plants that achieve that height in a season. It's difficult to choose a tree that is guaranteed not to get any bigger than the height of a short giraffe, but here is a small selection that roughly fits the bill

again within a couple of weeks) and stands there as upright as a guardsman all summer, before turning a gorgeous blonde at this time of year.Thirdly, Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'. A much shorter grass (reaching about 1.2m), it has a fantastic blueish