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Visiting an old friend in West Dulwich last week I saw the first damselfly of the season. I wasn't quick enough to see which, but it was a male of either the common blue damsel (Enallagma cyanthigerum), pictured below, or the azure (Coenagrion

My snowdrops are at the point where it is possible to start spotting them among the long grass. Not much longer to wait and they will be in full flower: tiny, green-spotted delights to lift the sombre mood of both recession and late-January. When we first moved here we found a cl...

While the large flower shows are pretty mind-blowing, it's the local flower shows that get me excited about growing plants and vegetables. Many towns and villages have horticultural societies or gardening clubs, which hold at least one flower show a year.They've got so much to of...

Our cold frame performed superbly this season, providing us with a late crop of chillies and a couple of pak choi. It was beautifully constructed out of a bunch of old windows and several banister spindles by Paul, who takes great pride in his

I love the first harvest of the new season - it's so welcome after the long dark winter. For a while now, I've been harvesting winter veg, such as leeks, kale and cabbage. These stalwarts of the plot have meant we've had fresh veg for soups

This week at the Chelsea Flower Show there are thousands of gardeners admiring out of season daffodil blooms in the show gardens and floral exhibits.In order to get their daffodils blooming at this time of year, growers force the bulbs to grow using

to pesticides where possible, so I don't use slug pellets. This season I've discovered the versatility of copper in my battle with Britain's No.1 garden pest. It's been found that copper rings and tape provide an effective barrier across which slugs and snails

We probably all know a Rose, Heather or Hazel, and I have friends with children named Sorrel and Daisy, but do you know a Zucchini?I knew the silly season was in full flow when a list of the UK’s Top 10 Vegetable Surnames landed in my intray

I’m going to run a Christmas card count this year — which animal will feature most often in these seasonal greetings? Robin ought to be odds-on favourite, surely. I’ve just had a pathetically cursory internet-based research session, as to why

I'm no weather forecaster, but as a keen gardener I always keep one eye on the elements. Many years ago our weather appeared to follow more defined, predictable seasons, and this dictated what gardening jobs should be done when.Look at any month