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I watered, it rained within 24 hours.The downpours we've had in Hampshire over the last few days have made a serious difference to the plants. The veg plots are suddenly flourishing and some of my miserable-looking lettuce seedlings have finally

What's the difference between wildflowers and weeds? They're at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to acceptability in the garden, but are they really so different? A weed is a essentially just a plant growing in the wrong place. But what

Paving and gravel paths can quickly become colonised by garden weeds. Follow our tips on keeping your paths pristine and weed free, below. While some plants, such as thyme and alpines, look delightful growing in the gaps between patio slabs or path

Green manures are the perfect organic fertiliser. They improve soil structure, suppress weeds and return nutrients to the soil.You never see bare earth in the wild for a reason: autumn rains in particular can leach nutrients, damage soil structure

I've commented before that I don't think 'wildlife' should refer to animals only. It should also include plants, even though most wild plants are referred to as weeds when they turn up in gardens. I wonder what the owner of the garden in East

of bumblebee rely on chalk grassland, hay meadows and other disappearing habitats that our gardens cannot provide for them.The problem for bees is that their favourite food plants are often considered to be 'weeds'. They don't go for highly bred double

-prepared ground. Choose bush varieties and let them ramble over a mulch to eliminate weeding. One or two plants produce plentiful crops and stay productive for weeks (providing you keep picking).Four time-saving veg cropsCourgettes, squashes and patty pansSow seed

they are no longer a pest but something extremely beautiful - a classic example of a weed simply being a plant in the wrong place. There is a thick blanket of the creeping variety, through which the occasional cranesbill forces its head later in the season. Not much

after the snowdrops and before the first primroses, and then virtually disappear under the canopy of more showy summer plants. Sometimes they produce a smaller, second flush of flowers in late summer, which I only notice when gardening or sitting close

, indeed, an extraordinarily fine plant (I have it self seeding in the gravel outside my office). Pretty well everybody also knows about Verbena bonariensis which is one of the finest herbaceous plants ever invented: it flowers for ages (from about July