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Living on a hillside, I’m fortunately not in danger of being flooded, but it doesn’t mean I’m not feeling the effects of the recent heavy rains. It’s difficult to walk around my sloping garden without slipping over, and the grassed areas have turned

As if you needed me to tell you, 2012 was wet! Official figures from the Met Office have now confirmed what we gardeners probably already knew, that 2012 was the wettest ever in England, and the second wettest across the whole of the UK by only a

maintained a certain decorum - ties, waistcoats and (for the head gardener) a black hat and heavy fob watch. Not for them a pair of holey jeans and a sweater grimy with compost and dusted with spilled rooting powder.Nowadays anything goes. I have laid a patio

I have never been good with tangles. Snaggled kite strings drive me dotty. Gordian knots of fishing line result in much swearing. Bricklaying lines that, if left alone for a couple of minutes, mysteriously tie themselves into intricate clove hitches

that are still viable. (iv) Plant the seeds that my very efficient wife has ordered. (v) Divide grasses and some herbaceous plants. (vi) Prune and tie back climbing roses. (vii) Cut back willows and dogwoods - although this can wait a bit. (viii) Plant bare

’t need to lift a finger. Automatic watering systems take the strain, leaving the busy gardener with time to tie in leading stems, pinch out side shoots and check for pests, and not lug endless watering cans into the greenhouse.I haven't checked

.Using garden twine, I tied the mature holly stems to the wire frame and then added the ivy, juvenile holly and finally the stems of berries. I considered a bow, but decided against it in the end. I think the berries provide enough colour. I then attached some

I've always wanted to take better pictures of my garden and allotment, not just for the sake of keeping a record, but for the pure artistic pleasure of it.Up till now I've been rather stupidly remiss: I took on an overgrown allotment, but I simply