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Today we got our first proper frost. The roofs of the buildings are dusted with white, the grass is crispy underfoot and the seedheads are glittering with ice - at least they are when the sun breaks through the lowering cloud. All very lovely, except for the fact that it’s a litt...

and frolicsome fairies (incidentally, if you feel that you need protection from fairies then you should carry twigs of hawthorn, ash and oak tied together with red thread).Among other interesting stories: hawthorn used to be called 'bread and cheese' because

-looking brownish spikes that shoot up in summer. You couldn’t fit it into a small garden pond, but it provides enormous impact in a large pond or boggy area of the garden.Unfortunately this Gunnera species is a little susceptible to frost, so it is best to protect

the rain, protects from the sun and - if it is really hot - can be filled with water and slammed on the head as a cooling shower. At the moment I have four. There were more but a dog ate one and another was snaffled as headgear for a bonfire night guy

about on a summers day it's wonderful to feel the soil running through your fingers. But when it's freezing cold only the most deranged gardeners would lay into a berberis without some protection - a bit like those football fans (always the fattest

? Did he tunnel under the wire? Or did he just grit his teeth (snails have thousands of teeth so that is a lot of gritting!) and climb the copper? My favourite theory is that he climbed a lily stalk and fell off landing within the protective ring. It

hispanica): a plant that has been muscling its way into our gardens and woodlands. Bluebells are protected and it is illegal to dig them up from the wild although there are various nurseries who grow them for sale. They are best planted around this time

protecting from moorhens, but I doubt that this is a very widespread problem.So, this Halloween, remember a pumpkin is not just for carving into scary faces, but tastes delicious too.

goodness or the Olympics with all that stirring sportiness to occupy our minds - and also for the tantalising glimpses of the Olympic plantings of James Hitchmough, Nigel Dunnett and Sarah Price. Perhaps they will all be given baronetcies in tomorrow’s New

and an interesting story.The elder has always been considered a magic plant, supposed to ward off evil and provide useful protection from witches - in some parts of the world cutting down an elder may bring the wrath of some evil sprite upon you. If that is the case