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Don't dismiss an idea until you've tried it! I should have known better really, but I was always dubious about the idea of making small pots out of old newspaper. Surely they'll fall apart, I thought, and can't possibly be worth the bother. How

I have three children - actually that is slightly misleading, as it may conjure up visions of little A-S toddlers trundling around with beaming smiles and sticky fingers. Sadly, those days are long passed and, at 23, 20 and 16, they are way past

into the recycling bin (hopefully your local authority does collect and recycle a good range of materials), but I'm sure there are still a few gardeners out there who could benefit from doing more.For instance, all cardboard rolls, tubes or egg boxes make great

the crowds arrive and the following are my highlights:The winner of a gold medal and best Small Garden in Show is  a designer called Paul Titcomb (who lives near me in Northamptonshire). Paul's garden is a neatly designed Urban Retreat that he has largely

grow for the sole purpose of attracting the speckled wood, which breeds in long grass.When the news broke that sales of artificial grass are soaring, it struck me that a fake lawn might have been a better option for my small patch (roughly 4m²). I

.An inspiring book I often turn to for ideas is a small paperback by Joy Larkcom called Vegetables from Small Gardens, first published in 1976 – I'm not even sure if it's still in print. Joy introduced me to a lovely concept – the Value for Space Rating (VSR

that as the natural clay will - with a bit of work - make the pond watertight.The important thing about making natural ponds (and this is the same in small gardens as well as out in the countryside) is to make sure they look natural and not like puddles stranded

compost to improve my soil, sprinkling it around newly planted bulbs and divided perennials. And with the cost of gardening forever on the increase I'll save a small fortune on bags of soil improvers and compost from the garden centre.

photographs of my first garden. I wasn't faintly interested in plants as a child - I had better things to do - but when confronted with my own garden (in 1984) I began to see the light. It was a very small concrete yard - the corrugated iron fence was a

(Galanthus spp.).There were no vast swathes of naturalised snowdrops at Chelsea, but small clumps of different cultivars planted in a 'trail', which took us around the garden as we followed it. My favourite was 'S. Arnott', a lovely long-stemmed variety