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seat. The main drawback is that a late frost will wipe out all the flowers for that season.Don't plant magnolias in the direct line of the morning sun as they will get burnt by too much direct sunlight before the dew has had time to evaporate. They need

plastic flowers instead.Does this sound harsh? If you think it is, I still can't believe that the Editor of Gardeners' World magazine let me get away with calling gardeners 'cack-handed' when it came to planting nectar-rich plants and hanging seed balls

elsewhere. Growing nectar-rich plants is a good way to entice them in, but they won't nest in your flower beds. Butterflies lay eggs in long grass, nettles and thistles (depending on the species), while bumblebees prefer undisturbed messy areas

to cover fences, and are used to divide areas of the garden. I have a greenhouse where I can squeeze in about eight tomato plants, a couple of cucumbers, plus pots of aubergine, sweet peppers and chillies. And pots of strawberries too, as grown outside

black mildew (which prevents the plants from photosynthesising and causes leaf fall). This was a disgusting job, made worse by the removal of the sticky blighters from my hair, clothes and fingernails after each session. The infestation was so bad

unusual and interesting at a plant stall. For the owners it is the opportunity to show off all their hard work and raise some money for charity.There are literally hundreds of gardens opening all over the country over the next few weeks so you are spoilt

, finding a fasciated marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre, somewhere in the flood plain of the River Cuckmere, near Alfriston, Sussex, when I was aged 12 or 13. I thought I had found some exciting new plant, or strange metamorphic phenomenon. I was amazed how

to keep the soil in place. Finally we added loam-based compost (made lighter by adding perlite and polystyrene chips), and planted it up with shade-tolerant wildflowers.The day proved that building a green roof is a little more complicated than making a

, 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

of the year. Then, after a brief spring, there are a couple of months of tongue-swelling heat before an equally brief autumn and then, bang - the snow returns.So what to plant? Certain trees are a given - Betula pendula (birch) of course. Russia is covered