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I have been greatly preoccupied with ponds recently. A client of mine has an unbelievably wet field - most of it squelches underfoot and any holes dug fill immediately with water - in which we have been digging ponds. These are not small ponds

. Cats regard gardener with a supercilious look as if they were Duchesses and you, the de facto owner of the garden, just the lowliest drip on the nose of a tramp.So how to deal with it? Everybody seems to have a theory. Some say filled bottles of water

aphids on my pyracanthas, which are dealt with by a strong jet of water, and stripy mullein caterpillars on verbascum, which are easy to pick off.I mention all this because I came across a very ancient shed the other day with many of the original

are relatively simple to make and many people have their own twist to the classic recipe. This one for cordial is my wife's adaptation:• Pick 25 flower heads (they should always be picked while they are in full sun for the best taste)• Boil 2 litres of water

their eight or so years in the field. However, they're also often treated with pesticides, which can run off into water courses. Real trees can easily be chipped and composted, and when an artificial tree finally falls apart it will have to go into landfill

hiding amongst piles of debris.Try making a slug deterrent by crushing two bulbs of garlic and boiling them in a litre of water for a few minutes. Add a tablespoonful of this to five litres of water and sprinkle on the leaves every couple of weeks

knives, the hoe, the brick, trousers, the egg or the polka dot bikini.Sure it has got a great deal lighter (I used to own an old wooden one like this and you would not want to push it very far) but it is intrinsically the same.In the 1970s James Dyson

this is to be ground breaking. I also liked The Garden that Time Forgot by Catherine Charles and Victor Moreaud (dripping water, twisted metal and balloons), The Frog's Dream by Remi Salles (boxing rings,goldfish and Edith Piaf) and Amelie Leroy's Family Tree. I

in clean water so probably still a bit risky!A great plant for the edge of a woodland or a large border although it does tend to seed itself in inappropriate places. The American Constitution was written in ink made from the berries of Pokeweed.

. bonica, which will almost certainly still be flowering at Christmas.It is very important to be quick off the mark when bare rooted stock arrives. Don't let them dry out - I tend to put them in the water butt for a couple of hours as soon as they arrive