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Yesterday at a Gardeners' Question Time recording it was amazing to hear that Eric's Cumbrian plot had only had 5cm of snow. Not so here in Hampshire. The snow is 45-60cm deep and the icicles more than 1m long!What have I been up to during the snowy

of demonstrations and activities going on. Bunny Guinness demonstrated her 'limbering-up-for-gardening' exercises; a poor, unfortunate soul attempted to convert a very stubborn Eric Robson to the art of flower arranging; Anne Swithinbank ran her house plant clinic

failed again).The temperature has been so high during the day that I’ve had to remove the lids from two propagators, to prevent them from ‘boiling’ the seedlings. I keep a couple of watering cans close by, as the plants are guzzling water

In early spring, there were a lot of discussions in the garden media over whether the harsh winter would have reduced numbers of garden pests.The slugs and snails were slow to appear after the cold, dry April. But most other critters, good and bad

stride and fill my lungs with fresh air.One of the great things about visiting arboreta is seeing plants that would never fit into an average domestic garden. Winkworth has a magnificent collection of more than 1,000 mature trees and shrubs, including

, the vacuum cleaner man, invented one with a plastic ball instead of a wheel but even that refinement is no longer available at we have gone back to basics. Dyson also made water go uphill in his 2003 Chelsea Flower Show Garden - the planting tried

things including cotton, loofas, sensitive plants, bat flowers. It's an expensive business having a son who is a seriously keen gardener (oh yes, and hell bent on taking over the Eden project in a few years time!!) BUT it's lovely to be home, surrounded

The world of gardening overflows with obsessions, such as giant vegetables, lawns, compost, cacti and many others.One of the most extreme gardening obsessions is the art of bonsai. I was always a bit dismissive of this particular obsession until I

)5. Go outside and admire.Nothing terribly complicated and yet the effect is extraordinarily wonderful.This meadow is, admittedly on the big scale and has been planted by garden designer Ivan Hicks in the ground surrounding Butterfly World and Future

and colleague for many years, died of a heart attack.We last worked together on the Gardeners' Question Time Christmas programme. I now realise how lucky I was to have been there. John was on classic form, full of that eyebrow-raising, side-splitting humour