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more.All this is augmented with plants grown specifically to boost fertility of the soil (so obviating any need for fertilisers) and plants to encourage bees and other pollinating insects.One of the slight disadvantages is that, obviously, a forest

, such as natural pest or disease resistance.The one rule that would be close to the top of my list is to make every effort to sow seeds at the right time. Often that means making time in your busy diary to prepare pots or soil so that you can actually sow the seeds

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.

, the drain is perfect for it. It receives a tiny dribble of rain run-off from only a very small part of the roof, and gets plenty of organic material from the soil particles and spilled food flushed down when we occasionally hose off the patio. In effect, we

of soil, what hard landscaping, which plants etc etcOn the day before the judging the gardens are visited by a team of assessors. They minutely examine the garden and award points in five categories; whether the brief has been realised, impact, design

but technically speaking are not - a bract is a modified leaf which is often much more spectacular than the actual flower. Sadly it does not do well on chalky soils.Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer': an oddity in that this is a pear tree that produces no edible pears

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

cannot burrow into the soil beneath. Instead, they just sit there until some unfortunate child wheels a bicycle through the noisome mess.So I took my broom and a bucket of water and shlooshed them away. Such a waste. Oh well, I can always go and see what

their cousins the cabbages.Adam suggested imperial fritillaries, which can have quite a foxy odour, especially on sunny days (they too have a smelly relation, the stink bell, Fritillaria agrestis, which grows wild in the heavy soils of California). But his wife

pests, and also helps break down clay soils.