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Not a lot of gardening has gone on across the nation since we last met. We still have about six inches of snow and I am thankful I have three pairs of my warmest socks, otherwise things might be getting a bit cheesy round here.There is not much

Do you have an autumn clear-up in your garden? Do you cut down all your herbaceous stuff so that everything is tidy for the winter or do you leave everything until the new year? Most people nowadays leave it until later to give food for small birds

March is not really prime garden visiting time: a few gardens with specialist collections are open for the wonderful National Gardens Scheme, but most of them are keeping their powder dry in readiness for spring and summer.However, gardeners still

New Year’s Eve. A defining moment, the joys and traumas of Christmas behind us and the blank page of 2013 stretching ahead like a freshly hoovered carpet. The question is whether, for us gardeners, that carpet will be lush shag pile or meagrely

Does it matter what one wears for gardening? Obviously most people look for warmth in winter, cool in summer and comfort all year; elegance is not really much of a consideration. My father-in-law, for example, has a waxed jacket which is more hole

One of the most important traits in any gardener's character is enthusiasm. I am sure that there are other occupations/activities that foster similar outpourings in their adherents. Football (for example), food (undoubtedly), trainspotting (perhaps

was typical of the west coast of Scotland and flitted between lashing rain and glorious sunshine, but a good time was had by all.I was particularly struck, this time, by heather. Heather looks spectacularly wonderful in its natural habitat, but attempts to

February is a thoroughly miserable month: the ground is too muddy, the rain too chilling, the light bleak and most people are feeling fed up: really the only good thing about it is that it is shorter than the other months. But, as that ghastly month

January already: Christmas neatly tucked away and another year of fabulous gardening stretching away ahead of us. The beginning of the year is the time for fresh starts and change but, rather than pestering you with annoying resolutions which few

somewhere in their garden.There is something very satisfying about a sturdy, well-built fence. Many years ago, when I was a contractor in London, we put up a lot of fences and it was a process that I very much enjoyed (except when it was raining