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I have a question for you, one that my wife came up with recently while we were mooching around the garden. Imagine, if you will, that one sunny morning you are suddenly plucked from your existing garden and plonked into a new one. The transfer

. It is time to bounce into 2010 with a light step and the feeling that valleys can be crossed in a single bound.Many people will have decided that the time has come to start growing their own vegetables. All those excellent Gardeners World projects and blogs

want somewhere to go especially when it is dry and sunny. One if the best places at this time of year is the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley in Surrey. To be honest the garden has some flaws but, if you want somewhere to spend a very

jam) and watched the ladybirds stumbling around like the bride's uncle at a wedding reception. I also wandered off to the vegetable garden and sneered at the caterpillars on the kale leaves.And now, as I sit here in my office there is a large and noisy

I have spent the last week on the small, but unbelievably beautiful, island of Colonsay off the west coast of Scotland. I apologise to those of you in the midlands who have been braving flash floods but the weather here has been stunning. Long sunny

interesting leaves that are shaped a bit like baseball mitts. They are best planted in a warm and sunny site as the flowers only open properly on fine days; in the past week or so when temperatures have reached 10°C or so they have been flaunting themselves

to the sweet pea.The best I can find is a cowboy song that was a hit in 1966 "Sweet pea / Apple of my eye /  Don't know when and I don't know why". Nice but not exactly horticulturally relevant.*Anyway, sweet peas are flowering now. Lathyrus odoratus

for garden use in the 1970s. Liquid nicotine is extremely dangerous to all living creatures and was used widely as an insecticide for many, many years. It was either mixed with water as a spray or else vaporised in lamps - in which case the gardener lit

, construction and planting. The planting is the most important and carries a possible 30 marks out of 100. In order for a garden to be awarded a Gold Medal it must earn 75 points or more.The next day the judges go round the gardens armed with the assessors

've resisted burning much in the way of garden refuse as I compost everything I can.Once a year I rent a great big shredder for a weekend and the peace of the countryside is completely disrupted as I spend a couple of happy days half-deafened and covered