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of discomfort: ticks "the size of young crabs", snakes and disease. Eventually he died of, perhaps, diptheria on a rain-soaked hillside. His servant carefully packed up all his stuff, including boots, but threw away all the seeds and specimens that he had

they are transformed by the arrival of tonnes of imported topsoil and a bewildering rainbow of garden plants, for Gardeners' World Live.Whilst I was there I was asked to research and create a container of plants to attract wildlife, and despite the rain, it looked

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

, the drain is perfect for it. It receives a tiny dribble of rain run-off from only a very small part of the roof, and gets plenty of organic material from the soil particles and spilled food flushed down when we occasionally hose off the patio. In effect, we

I've never known a drought like this one in my part of the East Midlands. Much of the forecast rain over the past few months by-passed my garden, but I hope others benefitted.Looking out onto my back garden, a great swathe of lawn is brown. I've had

I'm sorry to have to raise this issue but it is that time of year again. We are in the last few days of high summer as we slip into a mellow September. (Even though you could be forgiven for thinking October had arrived early judging by all the rain

their lawn was dead (well, mine did look dead) when I wrote about drought damage in the garden in my July blog, but didn't I tell you it would recover once rain came? Not that I'm feeling smug with my prediction. It's just that plants are great survivors

Green manures are the perfect organic fertiliser. They improve soil structure, suppress weeds and return nutrients to the soil.You never see bare earth in the wild for a reason: autumn rains in particular can leach nutrients, damage soil structure

of carrot flies.May the hairy bittercress develop a social conscience and stop reproducing itself in such a profligate manner.May your seedlings never dampen off.May your compost miraculously turn while you are not looking.May the rain only fall during