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The soil here is rock solid. Fortunately, I planted the last of the garlic last week, before temperatures plummeted. Now, I'd need to use an ice axe, rather than a fork if I wanted to plant anything.I answered the door recently to a courier, who

It boggles my mind to consider how many millions of tonnes of horticultural material must be shipped around the globe each year. And with the plants and soil come the insects. We are lucky in the UK in that we have a relatively cool temperate

of those from the local Chinese takeaway; I also use them for 'show and tell' sessions. They've found a 'lizardy' thing whilst digging up the end of the garden, and wonder what it is.Inside the chow mein box, curled up in some soil is a tiny newtlet

I think we have foxes living under our garden shed. I first noticed the scratching in the soil a week or so ago. It didn't look like very much excavation had occured and the hole didn't appear to go very far. But now we have more earth-moving going

Craft knifeall year round1 hourUse a craft knife to make holes about 3 cm across in the sides and base of the bucket.Choose an area of your garden that will not be disturbed and dig a hole to bury the bucket so that its rim is just below soil level. Loosely fill

in Britain in 1937, and not properly identified until 1948. It's a native of New Zealand, and likely arrived in wooden casks, packing cases or other imported wood. Unlike the usual domestic ‘woodworm’ beetles, it will not attack sound timber, but only feeds

some previous owner has thoughtfully laid a path or hidden some building debris. If I get through the crushed brick, a further 10 cm down I meet solid London clay. With a frozen crust, I thought I'd have a task before me.The ground was not as hard as I

wildlife, they can be made into great plant food and are a surprisingly versatile ingredient in the kitchen.The nettle we're used to in the UK is Urtica dioica, a perennial plant full of iron, calcium, magnesium and nitrogen, which makes it incredibly

in the moist soil is a wireworm. I know these are supposed to be notorious garden and agricultural pests, but like so many insects, I can't really treat them as pests unless they reach pest proportions. A few of last year's potatoes had small holes in them

home, although on occasions I've had two vying for my attention - or rather scrambling into newly dug soil in search of a tasty morsel or two.Robins are welcome companions to anyone gardening during winter, and always provide me with a moment to pause