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It rained on Sunday, so what better way to spend the day than planting roses? Well, I went and played Power Rangers in the bushes in Dulwich Park with 3-year-old, while my partner did the planting. She'd ordered them at Chelsea, and we'd almost

I've commented before that I don't think 'wildlife' should refer to animals only. It should also include plants, even though most wild plants are referred to as weeds when they turn up in gardens. I wonder what the owner of the garden in East

they are hunters, they cannot do any harm to the plants or their roots. I once came across an allotmenteer who was completely flummoxed when I showed him a picture of one of these centipedes. He admitted that he thought they were wireworms, and had been chopping

It boggles my mind to consider how many millions of tonnes of horticultural material must be shipped around the globe each year. And with the plants and soil come the insects. We are lucky in the UK in that we have a relatively cool temperate

Here's a thing. If a wild animal comes into a garden, it's wildlife. If a wild plant comes in, it's a weed. Now that seems just a bit unfair on our native flora.Admittedly, an animal can be considered a pest, but many are regarded as helpful

pot just outside the front door had been nibbled. We get lily beetles occasionally but when I bent down to pick up this red insect it turned out to be a striking black and red plant bug and not a beetle at all (see pic). Corizus hyoscyami doesn't have

are getting ready for the big planting session after half-term.There are precious few bugs about still. A small cloud of diaphanous winter gnats flutters above the shed but all else is quiet, until I pull up a small groundsel plant. There, wriggling

they are transformed by the arrival of tonnes of imported topsoil and a bewildering rainbow of garden plants, for Gardeners' World Live.Whilst I was there I was asked to research and create a container of plants to attract wildlife, and despite the rain, it looked

supremely elegant beetle, neatly parallel-sided, shiny, cylindrical and compact. So what a delight that almost every asparagus plant now benefits from its decoration, at least, in south-east London they do.I'm mildly surprised that I don’t hear more about

-leaved lime tree in the middle of the gardens. I hardly ever see this curious semi-parasitic plant, it is decidedly scarce in London and the south-east. Although widespread in central and western England, there is a big hole in the distribution map around