Its been such a wet autumn and early winter with hardly any frost. As gardeners, I expect we are all hoping for some dry weather that will give our soils a chance to dry out. With so much water falling in the last couple of months, I thought I would focus a bit on how to cope with waterlogged soil.  What does waterlogging do to soil? The key problem with waterlogging is that water fills up all the spaces around the soil particles, pushing out the air. This leads to a lack of oxygen for the plant roots and soil organisms alike, which means that they cannot respire aerobically. As a result ..read more

Weatherwise, 2023 has been a weird year. Over winter we had mild, wet spells and then extreme cold, a wet March and April and then the weather flipped to hot and dry. No wonder people are concerned about insect numbers, especially ladybirds. Like many gardeners, I’ve had more aphids and whitefly than usual in May and early June. Many of my fruit trees, limes and hornbeam were glistening from honeydew that had not been washed off by rain. Blackfly appeared on my broad beans and whiteflies on my brassicas. I waited patiently through May, looking out for ladybirds, but no sign. I was not alone, t ..read more

Our gardens are important wildlife refuges and to sustain a healthy insect population in our gardens and allotments, we need a wide diversity of flowers for as much of the year as possible. Read on to find out about my garden survey and why we need weeds in our gardens. Our gardens are at their most diverse in terms of flowers in late spring and summer but what about late winter? Many insects are active on a warm winter’s day and they need food sources so we need to provide for these early pollinators and predators. We can do this by making sure we have a range of early flowers – grape hyacint ..read more

Last summer  I had the chance to visit the rewilded walled garden at the ground breaking Knepp Estate in Sussex.  I have been keen to apply some of the principles of rewilding to my walled garden and jumped at the opportunity to go on a ‘rewild your garden safari’ at Knepp.  And what an amazing project it turned out to be  – truly inspirational.  Actually, I often use the term ’mind blowing’ and ‘challenging’ when describing this garden in my garden talks. So what is it about? Basically, it’s the transformation of a traditional walled garden with croquet lawn and herba ..read more

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch took place last weekend and its something I do every year. But for me, its not just about watching for birds and recording their numbers – its about learning more about my garden…. I love sitting in the garden, admittedly mostly in spring and summer, and just watching and listening. But rarely do I have the luxury of spending a whole hour in the garden doing nothing but watch. I’m usually grabbing a quick coffee, having lunch, or grabbing a few rays of sun. That’s why I love the birdwatch. It forces me to take an hour in January and just look. And its not just t ..read more

I have been finding loads of earthworms this week as I plant bulbs which is really encouraging as it’s a really good sign that my soil is healthy. Earthworms are vital for healthy soil.  They pull organic matter into the soil where it is broken down and the nutrients made available to plants.  Some earthworms build burrows that help drainage and aeration, but they also help soils to become more effective at holding water so reduce the risk of water run-off and flooding. And there are lots of different species of earthworms – 31 in the British Isles – some are very small and others la ..read more

As an ecologist, I love exploring salt marshes and shingle banks where conditions are truly extreme for plant and animal alike. It’s here that you find sea kale, thrift, yellow-horned poppy, sea lavender, sea pea, sea campion, sea blight and other plants that can cope with the high levels of salt. They are classed as halophytes. Living in a salt water environment, they are adapted to a physiological drought  – just as in the Ancient Mariner  “Water, water every where, Nor any a drop to drink”.   They have all sorts of adaptations to enable them to survive this hostile envir ..read more

Tulips, chill and climate change Tulip bulbs are back in the garden centres, heralding the time of year when we start trawling through the bulb catalogues and planning our colour combinations for spring. Of course, no bulb display is complete without the majestic tulip.  But there is one fly in the ointment looming large – climate change.  Just this last year we’ve had a mild yet wet winter, the coldest March on record, a warm spring and then ultra high temperatures in July and a drought. None of it is good news for the tulip as you will discover. We’re already getting a taste o ..read more

Here are a few top tips to help get you through the heatwave when you can’t use your hose pipe Prioritise the areas of the garden that need water – pots, newly planted trees, shrubs and other plants, the veg plot etc. The lawn is definitely at the bottom of the list as it is resilient and will recover. Don’t disturb the soil by weeding etc as this will cause more water to be lost Water in the morning or evening when its cooler and less will evaporate Give the plants a good drink around their roots rather than a light sprinkle of water  so that the water flows into the soil and reaches th ..read more

It’s been a summer of ants and I am not just thinking of flying ants that appears on balmy summer nights. No, I am thinking of those evil red numbers that emerge from the ground and swarm over your gloved hands and feet while you work. They bite with their pincer-like mandibles and, once attached to your skin,  you have to pull them off as a flick with the fingers is not enough. It’s a shame that I have this love-hate relationship with ants as I find them fascinating creatures. Take the leaf cutters. You see columns of these ants in rainforests, each carries a fragment of leaf on their ba ..read more