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We have a rambler rose just outside the back door, 'Félicité et Perpétue'. No matter how hard I cut it back, it still fights vigorously with the wooden slats of the featheredge fence, tries to smother the garden table and viciously rakes at my

, I've bought them from seed catalogues or other garden centre brands and one bag of them filled a large seed tray. This is no longer the case. The spuds are now only available in 2.5kg bags but there is still not enough of them to fill my trays. What

as the seedlings are not attacked by slugs. Last year this was a real problem, and many of my young vegetable plants were lost to slugs and snails.When sowing seeds outdoors, it's important to prepare the soil well, fork it to a fine tilth and rake it level

can spring up and choke them.I'm really thorough about preparing the bed before sowing, raking the soil to a fine tilth and drawing a drill with my hoe. It's not that straight admittedly as I can't find my line, but that's the trouble with tidying your

will be completely starkers, while another is just turning, so the chore of collection seems endless. Any leaves that fall on borders are left there, but we rake leaves from the paths and lawn (they smother the grass), adding them to the compost heap

to secure them.Provide supportChoose disease-resistant varieties to avoid blackspot, mildew and rust, though in warm and humid summers, even disease-resistant varieties can be affected. Rake up and remove fallen rose leaves to reduce the risk of reinfection

it to stand for a week, to allow the chlorine to evaporate.When filled, trim liner and underlay together leaving 10-15cm of overlap. Fold over the corners ready to fix on the planks.Lay lengths of decking over the four edges of the pond, parallel to the sides

then run the mower up and down to collect them (thanks by the way, to my son Luke, 11, for taking the photo). The great thing about using a mower rather than simply raking them up is that they get chopped up in the process. I remember the late Geoff

queen wasp making a nest in the shed. Much as I like wasps, and no matter how long I bang on about them being 'the gardener's friends' - helpful, interesting and attractive - I can't have a nest of 10 thousand of them guarding the rakes and spades

easy when I was a child. I always had a list of things without which life would be unbearable. One particular Christmas (around 1966), I remember the choice was between a Johnny Seven or a Secret Sam. Both were complicated weapons systems that fired