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as the seedlings are not attacked by slugs. Last year this was a real problem, and many of my young vegetable plants were lost to slugs and snails.When sowing seeds outdoors, it's important to prepare the soil well, fork it to a fine tilth and rake it level

well with dry shade, but if its leaves do flag I give the surrounding soil a good drenching. A hundred snowdrops bought 'in the green' last month have also been planted through this border, and I'm keeping these watered until they completely die down. I

to loving peonies. They have always been part of my gardening life. Our family garden in Guildford was on a slope near the Downs, on very thin free-draining soil over chalk. Peonies loved it; they didn't demand a thing from us and flourished in return

havoc - it's the big ones. I fear I'm losing ground - literally!At least there's no sign of the awful ghost slug, which has been spotted across the Severn in South Wales. This horror eats earth worms, which would spell disaster for many soils

thing is just how you can ignore them and they'll still flourish. Despite my heavy clay soil I've just left them in the ground, and they've grown up again every summer. If I was more conscientious I would have spread a mulch of compost over the area

of my great pleasures is weeding while listening to my iPod. So easy to use and no danger of ruining it by squishing soil into the springs or weeds into the woofers. Sometimes I have random music so it can easily flit from Rachmaninov to Radiohead, Gogol

harvest of rich dark soil ... full of egg shells. Oh well. They soon get broken into pieces as we mulch them in; they'll help improve the drainage.

its vigorous suckers (and copious amounts of seed) can easily become a problem. Each plant can cover many square metres of ground and on Colonsay (and other areas of west Scotland) it thrives on the acid soil and is taking over great swathes

relevance to my everyday gardening but I enjoy having them anyway. In this list I include old books like Gardening For Ladies which was published in 1851. It includes some wonderful stuff: for example in the chapter on Digging (Stirring the Soil

about on a summers day it's wonderful to feel the soil running through your fingers. But when it's freezing cold only the most deranged gardeners would lay into a berberis without some protection - a bit like those football fans (always the fattest