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Graham Porter’s garden jobs for November 29

1 One rotten apple in a basket – Have you stored away lots of fruit and vegetables over recent months? Now is a good time to check them through for any rotting specimens. Read

Graham Porter’s plant of the week, Nov 22

AS I sit typing this piece up I can almost watch the leaves of the field maple in my hedge change before my eyes. Read

Graham Porter’s gardening diary for November 15

Gardening jobs for November 8

1Get to the root of the matter – if you have a cool glasshouse or sheltered cold frame, you can begin to propagate some garden plants by root cuttings at this time of year. Lift specimens carefully to ensure that you get as many large roots as possible and cut off about 25% of them, placing them so that you know where their tops and bottoms are, before replanting the parent plant. The cuttings can be taken as pieces about 100 mm (4”) long and these can be inserted vertically to their full depth into a normal cutting compost. Plants to try include Primula denticulata, Phlox paniculata hybrids, Acanthus species, Papaver orientalis, Symphytums and perennial Verbascums. Read

Graham Porter’s gardening column, November 8

HAVE you ever been faced with seeds that refuse to germinate when you sow them but when the plant sows them naturally, they germinate in their thousands? Read

Graham Porter gardening Nov 1

National Tree Week – have you got the dates in your diary yet? November 26 to December 7 is The Tree Council’s 34th celebration week – which has now grown to 11 days. Read

Graham Porter’s gardening column Nov 1 - things to do

Trim off ivy, Virginia creeper and other climbers from around house windows to let as much winter light in as you can. Read

Graham Porter’s gardening tips for the credit crunch

I DO not care for the continuous panic-stricken chatter about the current economic chaos that the developed world seems to have put itself in. Read

Graham Porter’s gardening diary 11/10/08

CALLING all garden clubs – do you have any special events planned? Are you looking for new members? Read

Cotoneasters bring pleasure in Autumn

IF there is one plant that can provide us and our garden birds with pleasure at this time of year it has to be Cotoneasters. Read

Jobs which need doing in the garden now

Starving lawns and late summer pruning Read

Graham Porter: Keats had it exactly right with mists and mellow fruitfulness

JOHN Keats must have either had a wonderful fruit garden or spent some of his spare time wandering the lanes and byways of 19th-century Britain in search of blackberries. Read

Gardening: Where did we go wrong? Or were we just plum unlucky?

IN this month’s questions we seem to have had a number of readers who have had disasters of one sort or another this summer; oh well, we are only human after all! Read

Gardening: Sedum's Autumn Joy sticks with me.

ONE plant name that has stuck with me since my days as a youthful apprentice in Southend-on-Sea is Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy.’ Read

How to make friends with the vigorous (and tasty) courgette

MANY people don’t like courgettes because the fruit is a little bland if just eaten as a steamed or even boiled item. Read

BE A WINNER IN YOUR GARDEN!

Never mind the weather, says VAL JAVIN – all you need is pride in your own plot Read

Create an adventure for your children in their own garden

An area of garden for a child to dig in becomes a place to find or hide treasure; a home made garden ornament or statue becomes a fairy or a monster lurking in a jungle Read

Recognise how your hot and shady spots come and go

‘No matter whether you drink gin or not, it is quite nice to have a warm, sunny spot in the garden’ Read

Wild about Garlic – If you are out walking in the local woods around Huddersfield over the next month, you may pick up a faint but definite smell of garlic.

It probably isn’t the aromas of the local Italian pizza restaurant drifting across the area but one of our native woodland plants, known as ramsons or wild garlic, allium ursinum. Read