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It has been one of those typical early spring weeks, not enough hours to do everything I want to do. The team from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine came down for a couple of days to take a series of photographs on how to raise plants from seed

cutting back this herb - it shoots off old wood, and is tolerant of hard pruning.I then moved on to the bay trees. I have two standard bay trees, both more than 20 years old. They each take a day and a half to have a full haircut. I know it removes

I'm sitting on a train as I write this, something I do more frequently than I used to, in an effort to cut back on the number of miles I drive each year. One of the best things about taking the train is being able to gaze, semi-comatose, through

(felt pen tends to run). The cress hair should appear within a week.For the grass heads, use old tights, cut in to 20cm lengths. Tie each one in a knot at one end and add a teaspoonful of grass seed. Then cram the tights full with sawdust, so the tights

is that part of the shelter belt was planted with Rhododendron ponticum.The wildest rhododendron of all, R. ponticum was first introduced into cultivation in the 1760s. It's sometimes used as a rootstock for other, more distinguished, rhododendrons, although

, with regular deadheading, keep going until the autumn. Propagation is also quite simple: take cuttings from the non-flowering shoots in the summer.I haven't even started on alpine and annual varieties but must mention D. carthusianorum - a really good perennial

), aided by 13-year-old. The 11-year-old swept up and the 3-year-old ate biscuits.And you'll be pleased to know that no wildlife was inconvenienced by the tree's removal. I knocked a Jersey tiger moth from the small cherry tree as I entered the garden area

then run the mower up and down to collect them (thanks by the way, to my son Luke, 11, for taking the photo). The great thing about using a mower rather than simply raking them up is that they get chopped up in the process. I remember the late Geoff

. This is not nearly as scary as it sounds as it is simple to manage. It sends up fast-growing, very vertical shoots, with tinkling silver leaves that bustle and worry in the breeze. When one trunk gets too big you cut it down and let another take its place.

and dissolve 1.3kg sugar in it• Take off the heat and add the flower heads• Slice 2-3 lemons into a bowl (at this point you can add citric acid to prolong shelf life)• Pour the liquid over the lemons, cover and leave for 24hrs• Strain into a bottle• Add ice