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the garden centre, ready to plant.Plant them 10cm apart (15cm if you want bigger onions) and keep them well watered in dry weather. Onions don't like growing in recently manured ground, but they do like fairly rich soil, so if you have any home-made compost

in Scotland, which gives you some idea of the conditions they thrive in, which include a slightly acidic soil.When I cut down the canes, I also clear away any leaves that may be left on the ground, in case they're carrying any disease. Now is also a good time

fungicide Dithane 945, which breaks down in the soil after a few days. Similarly Iain Barbour of JBA seed potatoes in Scotland also recommends Dithane 945 for the same reason. Copper sulphate is a poisonous substance which neither bees nor worms care

in some home-made compost to enrich the soil. All we need now is some warm weather - it won't be long before I'm opening the backdoor first thing to pick these red gems for my breakfast bowl.

and you have a marriage made in heaven.As trees, morello cherries are a little less ornamental than sweet cherries; the leaves, bark and blossom are not as dramatic looking, but they do have other advantages. Sour cherries grow on less fertile soil

one of the long, new shoots of growth from a blackberry along the ground, cover it with soil, and wait for it to send out roots in the same way. When you dig the shoot up after a few weeks it will be ready to sever off and re-plant.

before or after? Unless I've had time to establish crops for a few weeks and they are happy in the ground, I always leave sowing or planting till after my holiday: reliable watering friends who will do more than sprinkle the soil are hard to find

, but our committee permits dwarfing rootstock and asks that we plant trees in the centre of the plot so that we don't shade or deplete the soil for someone else. The dwarf rootstock for plums is known as 'Pixy', but if you're planting in a back garden

some granular fertiliser on the soil (organic ones are available).Shallots are surprisingly easy to grow and very rewarding. I'd never want to be without them in the kitchen. One of my mainstays is a salsa that I serve whenever a meal needs a little

). Prepare the soil well with some rich compost and, like dahlias feed once a week with a general purpose feed.Nigella damascena is another attractive and easy plant to grow. The seeds can be tossed in the ground and will happily grow without much attention