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How inspired were you on your last visit to a garden centre? Did you leave with a trolley full of plants or empty-handed?My recent comments on this blog certainly generated some interesting responses (thank you - we love hearing your thoughts

the greenhouse at this time of year, composting or binning any winter plant casualties. Somehow after Christmas I always feel mentally tougher and better able to throw out plants I should have binned long since.Seed packets that are way past their sell-by date

dashing around watering my newly planted garlic and onion sets, opening cloches and rolling back the vent covers on my new brassica frame.I recently planted overwintering brassicas, so I rigged up some temporary shading for them, using old netting from

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

Queen Mother. Olga, the new head gardener, is just coming to terms with such an exposed garden, designed in part to provide cut flowers and produce for the house. Tall walls and dividing hedges are essential to create shelter, and new planting projects

Over the years, I've taken a lot of photographs. There are photographs of various gardens - my own, other people’s, show gardens, gardens I have visited and front gardens I have passed in the street. And then there are other subjects, including plants

This week I went to Ireland to visit the International Garden Festival on your behalf. Garden designers from all over the world have made fifteen conceptual gardens set amongst swaying oats in the grounds of a Georgian mansion called Emo Court in Co

I thought it would be interesting to use this blog as an excuse to find out more about the many slightly eccentric people who have helped make gardening as popular and exciting as it is today so this is the first in an occasional series: if anybody

't appreciate is that bindweed has a mission … to invade, occupy, and overtake! Bindweed may look lovely in the countryside, but it's not a garden plant to be encouraged. And just for the record, the No.1 weed in Scotland is ground elder (with bindweed in 4th