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A few weeks ago I wrote about trees for small gardens. Among the comments (well, to be honest, 33% of the comments) was a request from Daphne for very, very small trees - "very small being up to three metres".Tricky. Three metres is barely a shrub

about gardens and dream of seasons as yet unborn. There's a vast choice of stuff out there to keep us amused, from newspaper garden supplements and magazines to books both large and small. I have shelves full of them; some old and some new. How

I have spent the last week on the small, but unbelievably beautiful, island of Colonsay off the west coast of Scotland. I apologise to those of you in the midlands who have been braving flash floods but the weather here has been stunning. Long sunny

I've had another thought about small trees. For a more formal look you should consider the classic topiary trees - a short list would include yews, box, beech, limes and holm oaks. All of them are terribly amenable and happy to be chopped and pruned

At this time of year hedgerows bristle with elderflowers. Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a native tree with white flowers in midsummer and bunches of small black berries in autumn. It is a bit of a weed but, like many weeds, it has both a purpose

. This is a very vigorous climber, better known as Russian vine or mile-a-minute. Only the very brave will plant this in a small garden as, although it's undoubtedly attractive and flowers for a long time, it has an unquenchable curiosity. Many years ago I

care deeply for the well-being and happiness of my garden. Sometimes you've got to be cruel to be kind.Two areas in particular have fallen prey to this. Firstly my small (but satisfying) orchard. There is a good range of trees here but, on this occasion

Although the time for roses is long past they can be remarkably resilient. Here we are at the beginning of December and I have two flowering in my garden at the moment - Rosa 'The Prince' and R. Moonlight. It is true that neither bloom is much

tree.Always place these scented plants by doors or pathways - there is no point having something like this flowering its little heart out in some corner of the garden that is never visited in wintertime. All of them have small flowers but who needs

Gardeners (like opposition politicians) quite enjoy a bit of a moan. In the case of politicians then almost any excuse will do: for gardeners it is usually the weather. It's seldom perfect and in recent weeks all of us have had more rain than