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The other day there was a tweet* from Gardeners' World regarding a post I wrote on this blog a couple of years ago, about my top five trees for small gardens.While I still stick with those five I thought I might try and add a further five just

garden is really too small then plant them in somebody else's (if necessary under cover of darkness).Update: read James's follow-up blog on trees for small gardens, Trees for small gardens 2.

not for very long as I soon choked it to death with a fat bluebottle. To small boys the fact that the plant (Dionaea musicipula if you wish to be correct) cannot devour live chickens or younger sisters will always be a disappointment.Put simply there are four

. 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

.The story behind their arrival is as follows: a month or two ago I went to lecture at the excellent Garden Museum in London given by a clever and entertaining fellow called Professor James Hitchmough. James works at the University of Sheffield and, in brief

at RHS Garden Rosemoor, growing on the edge of a pond. It is well worth a trip to these lovely gardens in Devon to see it (and at this time of year there is the bonus of watching the apple harvest there.)I first saw Gunnera manicata when I was a small boy

spectacular display that seems to creep across the building over a few weeks, before the leaves fall. Now, I don't actually know for certain which variety of creeper this is as it was planted many, many years ago by a forgotten gardener, but I suspect

Downie': one of the most reliable and popular small trees available. Lots and lots of pink buds open into a cloud of white flowers in May. Rosy-cheeked little apples in autumn. Self-fertile.Next up is Malus 'Red Sentinel': the reddest of red apples

Many years ago when I was a landscaper in London, I had a regular client who had a tiny garden in Wandsworth. It was literally one flower bed, a small shed and a wall topped by a chain link fence.The reason we had to keep returning was because

At the extravaganza that was BBC Gardeners' World Live last week, my friend Joe Swift gave a couple of jolly talks about shade-loving plants. During which, I was asked up to the stage several times to help out.We discussed a vast variety of great