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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

woodland in Yorkshire. Acidic soil makes for much brighter autumn colours.Lytes Cary, Somerset: one of the smaller, more intimate National Trust properties. There are lots of autumn activities including wildlife trails around the gardens and estate

of weeding won't go amiss).Many hardy annuals also generously set seed. Either collect seed or let it fall onto the soil around and you'll have more flowers next year for free.So, what's your favourite annual?

exactly which one of our nearly 40 species are scuttling about. Rather than spinning a web to catch prey, they hunt by chasing after small insects on the soil and in the leaf litter. They get their English name from this behaviour and it was long believed

keeping pests under control without me needing to do a thing ... apart from enjoying these charming little flowers.When flowering is over I let this hardy annual die down naturally, releasing seed back onto the soil where it will germinate to form plants

, forgotten.Give them a decent fertile soil and they will never disappoint. They should be divided every few years in early spring.By the way, Future Gardens starts this week. It is the successor to the late, lamented Westonbirt Festival of the Garden

refuse to cross.Copper rings were placed round the base of  'at risk' perennials and hostas in borders early in the year. These rings push down into the soil, then sit proud to form a barrier. At first they stick out like a sore thumb, but as plants grow

know, is a weedkiller that acts upon the leaves of any plant but becomes inert when in contact with the soil. I believe that when it was first invented the salesmen used to finish their pitch by drinking some of the stuff - on the grounds that it only

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

closes, if you look closely then spring is visible everywhere. We have buds fattening as quickly as a troupe of bun-loving chubbies and the pointy shoots of bulbs push themselves through the cold soil. These are stark reminders that soon things will need