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More gardeners choose pansies and violas as their favourite bedding plant than any other flower.These brightly coloured flowers with their cheerful faces brave the very worst of our weather to put on displays during winter and spring, and voting

Shade is probably one of the most challenging situations for plants to flourish in. Whether it's buildings, walls, fences, shrubs or trees, on the south side your plants bask in full sun but on the north side they'll be in cooler shade. Choosing

Choosing the very best plant supports for perennial plants is always a challenge. Firstly you've got to decide which type of plant support to go for. Should it be something robust made of metal, or something more natural, or even homemade?Then you

of bumblebee rely on chalk grassland, hay meadows and other disappearing habitats that our gardens cannot provide for them.The problem for bees is that their favourite food plants are often considered to be 'weeds'. They don't go for highly bred double

Is your garden stimulating all your senses? Like many people, I'm sure, the main driving factors behind my choice of plants are colour, size and shape. In other words, I'm most interested in what they look like. Nothing wrong with that. I want my

I'm obsessed with garlic. I've had a bumper crop this year - a mixture of autumn- and spring-planted varieties -  and I use vast quantities in just about every meal.Although I've stored a lot of garlic in plaits and loose in trays, to see me through

There are some plants which everyone agrees smell bad. The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) and the dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris), for example, both smell like rotting corpses when in flower, to attract pollinating flies. Happily, not all

) and cat wrangling (definitely) have their enthusiasts, but there's something about plants that makes people bubble and froth with excitement. This can be lost on a great deal of the population who can't understand what all the fuss is about. To those of us

expect your site is just the same. Yes, it's bean planting time and everyone is a-bustle on the site building all the wigwams, tunnels and trestles ready to support the massive growth of French and runner beans.Many people favour wigwams – I do

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