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The wind lately has been something else! I can't remember the last time we had such extraordinarily strong winds hit the garden. It's certainly been fantastic for drying my washing, but the garden is getting the sharp side of these unusually strong

are growing bigger by the day, and I don't want to plant out only to find a late frost damages them.Our Gardeners' World magazine campaign to help you Grow Yourself Healthy moves on apace too, and my own plot has been delivering regular pickings of rhubarb

are commendable, if nothing else. There are friends who grow the plants indoors and wonder why they don't fruit (the flowers need pollinating); friends whose plants flower and fruit but the tomatoes rot at the ends (blossom end rot caused by irregular watering

directly into the terraces, or into nearby fountains so that they could be easily watered by hand, although sometimes they didn't need watering at all. Also, these terraces helped prevent mountain erosion.From a wildlife gardening perspective, this style

and disease resistance. Potassium is naturally found in wood ash and deep-rooted plants like comfrey. I grow comfrey in the garden and use it to make a liquid feed for my fruiting crops.It's also important not to let leafy crops, like lettuce, or root crops

of cress.I love growing cress. The seed is ridiculously cheap, and incredibly quick to germinate. And, of course, growing cress is a great way of introducing children to the pleasures of gardening. Just buy the packets of seed, get sowing and you'll see

I'm beginning to wonder whether growing old heirloom or heritage varieties of vegetables is really worthwhile. My tomato 'Snow White Cherry', sold as a heritage variety by many companies, was a real disappointment this year, and I wish I'd grown

platter of sandwiches. We both agreed that we felt a craving for greenery at this time of year.It might be too cold to grow your own salad leaves in the garden right now, but I'm tucking into lettuce, baby spinach, rocket leaves and a whole lot more

I've just thrown a 'plant party', as part of 'Grow Your Own' Week. This involved my friends coming to my flat and learning how to sow tomatoes and chillies. We also discussed pricking out, transplanting, feeding and watering. It reminded me of my

I was producing a crop of water chestnuts).I'm also intending to start a small asparagus bed. Asparagus is a fascinating vegetable. Until a couple of years ago I heartily disliked it, but now I've fallen for its charms I'm going to attempt to grow