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of year.The hedge outside is covered with birds in all shapes and sizes, munching away at the many and left-overs I've put out for them. I've left them little heaps of Christmas pudding, crumbled up biscuits and I've filled up one of the peanut feeders

-flavoured toffee without quite so much guilt as from the real thing!!The slips went in in two batches, the first towards the end of May. This year I grew Jetfire and Beauregard. The pretty, scrambling heart shaped leaves, occasionally topped with morning

(felt pen tends to run). The cress hair should appear within a week.For the grass heads, use old tights, cut in to 20cm lengths. Tie each one in a knot at one end and add a teaspoonful of grass seed. Then cram the tights full with sawdust, so the tights

, but that needn't be the case. Yes, it's great to have a classically shaped tree, but there are plenty of other options if space is short. Fans, espaliers, simple cordons and step-overs can all be pretty productive and look gorgeous at this time of year. They also

in size and shape of the tubers was extreme. There were two tubers which stood out from all the rest. The first, held aloft by a grinning 10-year-old, weighed in at a full 750g and was ear-marked for slicing and frying. I was sure it would win a prize

initials and it's great fun to plant bulbs in the shape of the letters. Now coming into their third year are a smart 'C' and 'A' – representing the first letter of each of my kids' names - gracing a bit of grass near the magnolia. We used just 10-15 bulbs

I've always been a great fan of bulbs, in all their shapes and sizes. I couldn't get through the winter without snowdrops, and the prospect of daffodils, heralding spring. But right now, in (a rather cold and wet) May, alliums are centre stage

gone! All I know is that the plant is a Seeds of Italy variety.The other, ‘Midnight’, is a more of a ‘classic’ courgette shape; far more compact and healthy looking, but it does have slivery grey straight-edged markings on the leaves. At this time

from year to year; it is not an exact science, but it is 15cm or so tall and about 20cm or more wide at the base. The result of that tiny bit of extra effort in autumn is an early crop of gorgeously succulent garlic, with bulbs that have shown little