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evening and when I got out of the car the first thing I noticed was scent. A wild romantic perfume floating through the heavy warm air. Although the planting in my garden is predominantly herbaceous, I will always have room for the begetter

Until I became interested in gardening - embarrassingly, half a lifetime ago - I thought a spindle was just a mechanical thing. It made me think of Sleeping Beauty, who, under the curse of a wicked fairy, pricked her finger on the spindle of a

memory.There is however one big fat buzzing fly in the ointment. A plant that I have come to dislike with an almost irrational fervour. A plant that glares forth from innumerable gardens throughout the land. A plant whose impact is the equivalent of being

. Like the lives of James Dean or Tupac Shakur, it's short and spectacular. Thereafter, the leaves can be a bit dull and cast a lot of dry shade, so be wary of planting cherries as the sole centrepiece in a small garden. Plant small trees instead

At this time of year garden magazines and blogs are chock full of articles about snowdrops. Even Adam Pasco has written one and it takes a lot for our sainted editor to stir himself from his Caribbean hideaway at this time of year. However

I suppose that the first week of September counts as late summer which is, I think, one of the most exciting times in our gardens. The classic English garden is very biased towards midsummer. The June garden is overflowing with full

again. Six months later there was no evidence of its ever being there: new views had opened up and light was reaching parts of the garden that has always been shaded. Every gardening disaster is also an opportunity to try something new.

stop to our normal November gardening routine. I would usually be spending jolly weekends doing a bit of light tidying, collecting the last of the autumn leaves and planting the last of the tulip bulbs. Instead we have been shoveling snow out