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already completed the operation.Under the mulch I like to scatter something with a bit more ooomph: mulch is very good for the soil but the plants could do with some sort of fertiliser as well. I usually use blood, fish and bone which gives a good balanced

in a rented flat in Twickenham) as it is pretty elementary that soil needs nourishment and manure is a good option. This week a huge pile of the stuff arrived. Brown, crumbly and pleasantly pungent it sat on my drive, lightly steaming and awaiting

my previous blog and this is their reply:Dear Mr Alexander-SinclairMany thanks for your enquiry. For some years we have noticed an unusual number of wisteria dying, and indeed have suffered casualties amongst the Wisley wisteria. There are probably

and barrowing loads of muck all over the place. For a while everything will be empty and brown but beneath the soil roots will be stretching, bulbs will be shooting, worms will be worming and everything will be getting ready to sprout.But, for those of you

I am more often asked how to keep cats off gardens. The scenario is this: Neighbouring cats slouch through fence and leave interesting surprises just below soil level. The innocent gardener comes into close contact with said deposit and swears loudly

as that can damage the soil structure. (The fact that clouds of dense smoke tended to roll across A roads whenever the wind changed meant that the practice was outlawed.) It is a dramatic change to a landscape.I mention all this because soon it is the 20th

easily push their way through even the heaviest soils. They get themselves in amongst the roots of other plants - the solution then is to dig up the whole plant and wash all the soil off until you can clearly see which roots are good and which are evil

2009 is likely to be stuffed with articles, books and programmes about Charles Darwin. It is the year of Darwin’s 200th birthday and also the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, his best known work. The BBC are marking

I have just got back from a thoroughly blissful week on the Isle of Colonsay. The more observant readers among you will have noticed that I have blogged about Colonsay in previous years: here are my 2007 and 2008 holiday blogs. This year the weather

perfectly suited to the smaller garden. It has pure white star-shaped (hence the name 'stellata' as in 'constellation') flowers. It grows very slowly and will reach only about 1.5m after 10 years: given perfect conditions it will eventually top out at about