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I might move house this year. It’s very early days, but the possibility of having a bigger garden is sending my plant-collecting gene into overdrive. I currently grow plants in my small, shady courtyard garden. But after four years of this, I long

Thank heavens for winter-flowering plants. These hardy specimens often have tiny, inconsequential blooms, but they more than make up for them with their powerful, sweet fragrance. I rarely notice the flowers of Sarcococca hookeriana, but I’m always

Last week, Butterfly Conservation published a report called The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2013. It makes a depressing read, demonstrating a marked decline in the number of our larger moths over the last 40 years. The survey, conducted

Following my recent blog Top 10 plants for a dream garden, I’m expanding the wishlist to include fruit and veg. I think it’s good to have a goal, no matter how distant it may seem.I like to think that if I have a decent-sized garden, with room for a

Two years, I felt the need to grow a local, native plant in my garden. I gathered rosehips from a field rose at the edge of a nearby canal, soaked them in water and sowed the seed in coarse compost.The pots sat in a corner of my patio, doing nothing

invertebrates to amphibians, hedgehogs and even birds. A stumpery is similar to a log pile, but you can have a bit more fun with it. It consists of upright logs half buried in the soil, allowing moss, lichen and fungi to grow. Some gardeners plant ferns

, following the excellent instructions on Jeremy Biggs's website (Jeremy Biggs is the Director of Pond Conservation). I dug it deliberately with the mating needs of frogs in mind - shallow and sunny, with plenty of plants for tadpoles to shelter in

the plant stems moist and prolong the life of the wreath, as well as give it more of a bulky appearance. You can also buy, or make, beautiful willow wreath bases, which last for years and can simply be brought out in autumn and dressed accordingly. I aspire