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It was half term this past week, and as my wife is a teacher we’ve been away to visit friends who live in the very lovely town of . It was absolutely brill to spend time with our pals but I was roughly 250 miles from my garden for a whole week, which was a bit of a pain. You see so much needed doing (dividing perennials, planting bulbs, mulching borders, general autumn tidying – the list goes on) and a school holiday, when there are two adults to keep my nine-month-old daughter occupied, is the perfect time to get on top of things. Never mind, I popped all my tender plants in the greenhouse, just in case there was a frost while we were away, and got used to the idea of planting my bulbs in the Christmas holidays (yes, I know planting bulbs in December is far from ideal but I have got away with it in the past – just).

Ness Botanic Gardens

Even though I’ve been far from my own garden, I’ve still had gardening on the brain. I don’t know about you, but I love to visit gardens if I’m on holiday (especially if there’s a stonking tea room and the chance of some yummy cake), and by some miracle I managed to convince the whole party, including two young boys, that it would be a fab idea to fly by .

We visited on a gloriously sunny afternoon, the autumn colours were gorgeous and everyone had a thoroughly lovely time (even my daughter whose buggy could have done with four-wheel drive for some of the trickier terrain). The visit was especially a hit with the boys because Halloween was on the way and there was a pumpkin trail to keep them occupied. They were particularly excited when we found the climax of the trail, which was an impressive display of squash in different shapes, colours and sizes. Unfortunately I couldn’t identify them all, which somewhat dented the ‘Kevin-knows-lots-about-gardening’ aura I try to give off.

Inspired by the pumpkins we’d seen at Ness the boys (rather egged on by the dads) decided to have a go at carving a lantern.Ìý Have you ever done it? It’s not as easy as it looks, I can tell you. Even so, after an afternoon of unimaginable mess, near misses with sharp blades and a great deal of patience we ended up with something not half bad.

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Sadly we had to buy a pumpkin from a shop, and I can’t help feeling the whole experience would have been a tad more satisfying if we’d had a home-grown one to hack to pieces. But then is it a waste to plant a seed in May, nurture a plant for months and then harvest a crop only to make it into a lantern?Ìý I guess there’s always pumpkin pie or soup to make the most of the fleshy bit.

So, what did you do with your half term? Don’t tell me – you planted bulbs, mulched borders and divided your perennials. You’ll have nothing to do at Christmas now.

Until next time…

P.S. The main pumpkin grower in the UK – – grows more than two million pumpkins every year to sell to supermarkets, most of which get carved up for Halloween. Can you imagine harvest time?

Kevin Smith is a garden writer, and former Commissioning Editor of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardeners' World Magazine.

In the news

After the barbecue summer and the 'mild' winter (that was last year's three weeks of snowdrifts, then) the Met Office could be forgiven for throwing in the towel. But though , others haven't.

Positive Weather Solutions forecasts : Netweather reckons on . Meanwhile the Met Office's talks of 'mild' and 'very mild' weather with only occasional frosts until at least December. Who's right, I wonder?

At least I can believe the predictions of Tony Russell and others that . But how much do you think it's worth? Environmentalists have been turning economist at the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya, Japan this week to argue that a price should be set on the value of nature - the only way, they say, to save it in a cash-strapped world.

You couldn't have a Hallowe'en weekend without at least one pumpkin turning up in the news. But what a pumpkin. Just a week after the UK record fell to the Paton twins and their 682kg (1,504lbs) monster, the world record has also taken a tumble. This time it was Chris Stevens, a farmer from Wisconsin, USA, and the pumpkin in question weighs an eye-popping 821.24kg (1,810.5lbs). Now that's what I call a lot of soup.

Elsewhere on the web

If you need immediate distractions, (Amorphophallus titanum), flowering its socks off right now: don't stand too close if you visit, as it stinks of rotting meat. There's a wonderfully quirky idea from Emma, aka Fluffius Muppetus, for this year; and Mark Diacono has been picking his: there will, it is said, be wine.

Out and about

All together now... wooooooooooo.... yes, it's Hallowe'en this weekend, and that means pumpkins and all things autumnal. strikes a suitably spooky note with a talk from author Amy Stewart on 'Wicked Plants' - that is, plants which 'kill, maim, intoxicate or otherwise offend'.

Enter your artistic creations in the Pumpkin Carving competition at , or set the little ones loose in the in Derbyshire, for a feast of pumpkin parades, broomstick-making and serpent mazes.

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After all the ghosties and goblins have crept back to bed for another year, you can turn your attention to a bit of gardening. It's bulb-planting time, and there's expert advice from , demonstrating how to plan and plant them at its Somerset headquarters on Wednesday. And the gets under way in this weekend celebrating the . Festivities include tcookery competitions and the chance to have your hair dyed purple.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

Now is the time to get some great autumnal photos of leaves, such as this maple which I photographed with a macro lens against a green lawn (click on the image for a larger version)

Capturing the ephemeral beauty of your garden on camera is hugely satisfying, requiring a combination of good timing, good luck and a lot of patience. It's a skill which takes a lifetime to perfect - so to get you started leading professional garden photographer shares some of his top tips.

Keep it simple

Keep equipment simple - try to avoid having a camera bag full of different cameras, lenses and filters. One camera and a couple of different lenses - say a zoom lens and a wide-angle lens, should be enough to capture garden scenes. Use a macro lens if you want to go in close on a flower or leaf.

When to shoot

Shoot in the early morning and late afternoon on sunny days for better light. Brilliant midday light is too harsh and will wash out colours as well as burning out highlights and turning shadows into inky black pools with no detail. During the day I usually prefer to shoot in cloudy, overcast conditions - the light is softer, less contrasty and therefore often more flattering to garden subjects.

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I used a macro lens to photograph this gorgeous blue hydrangea

Wind

Choose days when there is little or no wind to reduce subject movement. I am constantly checking the weather forecast and when the wind speeds drop below 5mph I will go out into the garden. With little or no wind subject movement is less of a problem and so your chances of getting pin-sharp images with good depth of field are enhanced. If you are shooting on a windy day and you want to render a plant sharp, you need to use a fast shutter speed of around 1/500 second or faster, otherwise the plant will be recorded as a blur.

Use a tripod

I always use a tripod whenever I can - it stops the camera from shaking during exposures and also slows you down, helping you to compost your image with greater care.

Film or digital?

Most of us have converted to digital now, but if you are still using film, try using a slow transparency film such as 50 or 100 ISO -

This autumn leaf is set off by the out of focus background of other leaves on the tree

Composition

Rather than just taking loads and loads of photographs, spend more time on each subject and concentrate on one or two good compositions of a single subject. if you are shooging a flower close-up, check all around the viewfinder for any distracting details such as plant labels, greenfly or damaged petals, particularly in the background. Although these can sometimes be removed after the event in Photoshop, it is better to get the shot right in camera. Try to fill the frame with the subject that has caught your imagination.

Go with your emotions

Try to photograph subjects that you feel some emotional response from - an aquilegia dripping with early morning dew; a rose dusted with frost; the more beauty you feel for the subject the better the picture you will take.

Early morning is the best time to capture dramatic garden scenes like this

Now it's your turn...

Now you've got some tips, it's time to have a go yourself. There are hundreds of fantastic plants and gardens photos on to inspire you - do add your photos if you haven't already.

And if you manage to capture the image of your dreams, there's still time to enter the . Judges include Clive Nichols and fellow garden photographer Andrew Lawson. If you need some extra inspiration, last year's entries are on display at in West Sussex until 16 January 2011.

Autumn’s here, the first really frosty nights have started while I’ve been busy crushing apples and making leather. I left my , , and other tender plants outside till the last moment. I reckoned I could safely leave them out that bit longer than most years as it’s been so mild. Then the other night I had to rush out, lay the plants over and put old sheets over them as serious frost was predicted. I prefer to leave citrus out as long as possible as once they’re under cover they become soft and more prone to moulds and pests, to say little of just how cramped it can all get.

You see, in order to move the citrus and friends in I have to first make space - which means evicting the last of the tub-grown grapevines and figs. And all the vines need to be pruned back before they can be moved. More than a little work thus my prevarication. But with frosts finally arriving I’ve been forced to get the job done in a hurry.

There were a few late tub-grown grape bunches to collect to start with, they’re super sweet so they’re now drying to raisins. I cut most of the young growth off each vine - save a few stubs of this year’s shoots - with but two or three fat buds apiece.

Next year each bud will give a new shoot, spray of flowers then fruits, so only a few buds are needed. Say five in total plus three spares. With the more difficult varieties, i.e. those needing more heat or a longer season; I left fewer still; to produce stronger shoots and earlier bunches.

The prunings, which are too tough to compost, went on a wildlife pile, though some varieties my children liked most were made into cuttings - Flame, , , .

The supporting canes have been stacked outside to weather clean but old ties were composted as twine harbours many pests.

Using a sack barrow (a jolly useful device) I’ve moved the dozen and a half tubs outdoors by a shady hedge. They’ll sit there till brought in again when winter’s over.

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Once emptied I had to spruce up (weed and tidy) then wash the end of my polythene clad tunnel where the vines had sat. I found I had to stick plastic tape over a myriad holes in the polythene - made by my cats running up to sit on top. It’s lovely up there I’m sure; most dry days I notice their fat bodies curled up sunk deep into the soft warm hammock of my now perforated plastic sheet roof. Once all this was done I could bring in my citrus, they’ve loved being outdoors and were well cleansed by their sojourn. While many are already carrying fruits which will ripen mid-winter, others are now flowering, some even flowering while a previous crop is still hanging. What gorgeous perfume they’re giving and how incredibly intoxicating it is now confined under plastic!Ìý

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time

Many users on the Gardening message board have been seeking out and discussing ideas for adding colour to their gardens this winter so here are some further ideas from Jim to inspire you. He also answers some questions that were posted on the message board.

Winter and spring colour for tubs and baskets

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There is still time to plant up a few containers to give pleasure through the dark days of winter and in to spring.Ìý I tend to use dwarf winter and spring flowering heaths and heathers as a basis, coupled with some small-leaved ivies.Ìý Young plants in 7 or 9 cm pots are readily available at this time.Ìý When it is time to change over to summer flowering plants, these can be planted out in the garden.Ìý Some ivy cultivars make excellent groundcover.

I would leaven that with a selection of winter flowering pansies or some of the range from the primula family, some are in flower already and will continue to do so through till May 2011.

Finally, to give the displays a real ‘lift’ how about a few miniature bulbs.Ìý My own favourites are the small cyclamineus narcissi like Jack Snipe, Jenny, Little Witch or Jetfire. None of these mentioned will grow taller than about 30cm ( 12 inches in old money!).

Now, to your questions...

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from Matthew Valentine
I live in Thames Valley and have a few astrantia romas that I'm thinking of dividing to fill a few spaces. Is the end of October too late, especially considering we've already had frosts?

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In my view, the short answer to your question Matthew is ‘yes’. Spring is undoubtedly the favoured time – even in the Thames Valley!’Ìý I should add that my first ever job south of the border was on the bonnie banks of the River Loddon, your neck of the woods, where I learned that you have a much longer growing season than we do in Scotland, even so, I suggest you leave the job to spring, when the first buds are beginning to show.

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from Bluebell_Mel
I bought a raised 1000x760x800 vegetable planter earlier this year which sits on my front drive and is north facing. I'd like to make use of it over the winter and grow veg in it but have absolutely no idea what to plant in it as I've never grown winter veg.
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Could you give me some suggestions on what to plant that I'll be able to grow and harvest over the winter time. Would like to grow garlic as well if possible. I have grown Swiss chard, carrots and lettuce in the planter this year and still have some chard left.

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Greetings Bluebell Mel, I am going to use your query to make a basic general point and that is, it is useful for me and others in the same boat, to know in which part of the country the questioner lives. You could be on the sunny coast of south Devon or half way up a Grampian mountain!ÌýÌý In other words, knowing the location often helps to direct the answer to a question.

To your problem then, it is getting a bit late to be sowing and/or planting in the open. I’m sure you will be aware that the days are shortening, the light can be of poor quality for long periods and the ambient temperatures are slowly drifting downwards. Sowing and planting out doors in these circumstances is not recommended BUT, if you were able to cover your planter with a tent of sorts, using envirofleece or even stout clear polythene there are one or two things you might try.Ìý Garden centres in your area may still have a selection of vegetable plants on sale that are suitable for planting now. My first thought is spring cabbage and secondly winter salads.Ìý I would certainly find a corner for some parsley plants and by all means plant your garlic; this is the right time for that job.ÌýÌýÌý

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from tattiebogle
I would like to know what plants I can grow to help wildlife through the cold weather. I was thinking in particular about flowers, for example I know dandelions are quite important because they provide nectar early in the season, but I don't want a garden full of them! What early flowering garden flowers would provide food for insects?

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Well Tattiebogle, I wonder where you come from?Ìý Your question could take a wee while to answer because I immediately think of the current buzz-word – biodiversity. If you work towards having a well-stocked garden with all year round interest, you will have done your bit to provide for a good range of wildlife including invertebrates. That IS biodiversity in action.Ìý With the exception of aliens like the , our native fauna have developed a rhythm of life, which for many includes hibernation in the winter...Ìý As the garden awakes however, there is a host of plants that will provide sustenance including nectar for bumble bees - various flower bulb species, fruit trees, willows, rhododendrons, cotoneasters, gorse, forget-me-not, daisy, dead-nettle, pansies, primulas, red campionÌý to name but a few.Ìý

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from rockwell
The leaves on my sprouts are lacy. Some of the sprouts have small circular holes. I think there are slugs about but I can't think they're responsible for the leaf damage. The plants are under nets. Any suggestions please?

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I have a mental checklist with regard to this question which is especially useful when there is no physical or photographic evidence to hand. First – pigeons, but your plants are netted, I cross that one out. Second – slugs, the likeliest culprits and Thirdly – but in my experience they tend to be more damaging early in the season but holes created by them though small at the time are regular in shape and as the leaf stretches, the damaged tissue falls out, the edges of the holes turn brown.

My instinct is to stick with slugs but to see them feeding, have a look after dark on a calm, damp evening, taking a torch with you to spot the critters!Ìý If you prefer not to use slug baits, try the ‘slug pub’ traps with a spot of John Smith’s Best as the lure.

Jim McColl presents ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's .

Have you looked carefully at your pond lately?

I only ask because you might have done what a friend of mine did and, in all innocence, bought three plants of a lovely pond plant called parrot feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) at the local garden centre.

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It's a sweet little thing: light, feathery, ferny leaves and a handy habit of oxygenating the water. Unfortunately, it ate my friend's pond.

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Within a matter of a few months the little side pool she put it in disappeared: then the one next to it went. When it launched a takeover bid for the main pond we had to don the waders and get in there to pull it out by the armful. Three years later, we're still doing it: we've long since surrendered the small pools, finally converted to green feathery carpets some time around 2008.

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The government has just launched the second phase of its campaign to stop you suffering the same fate. Its aim is to educate gardeners about these rampant non-native invaders, but they're not only trying to save the pond in your garden: half-a-dozen of these hugely invasive water plants have jumped the garden fence into our rivers, streams and lakes, choking out other life and covering the lot in green fuzz. It's devastating for native wildlife and costs tens of thousands of pounds every year to eradicate them.

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So I'd advise you to get up from your computer right now and go check whether that lovely little oxygenating plant you popped in your pond this summer is really a monster in disguise. To help you, here's a rogue's gallery of pond plants to avoid at all costs: (click on the images for a larger version)

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Floating pennywort (Hydrocotole ranuculoides) Image copyright: Crown Copyright, GB Non-native Species Secretariat

Floating pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides): shiny, kidney-shaped leaves which can grow at a rate of 20cm per day. Download the from the Defra website (PDF)

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Parrots Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum)
Image copyright: Crown copyright, Non-native Species Secretariat

Parrots feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum): feathery, delicate, utterly ruthless and spreads like wildfire

Download the from the Defra website (PDF)

New Zealand Pigmyweed (Crassula helmsii) Image copyright: Crown copyright, GB Non-native Species Secretariat

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Water Primrose (Ludwigia peploides) Image copyright: Crown Copyright, GB Non-native Species Secretariat

Water primrose (Ludwigia grandiflora, L. uruguayensis and L. peploides): pretty bright yellow flowers (July - August) which smother a pond in weeks and clamber out onto the banks as well. Download the from the Defra website (PDF)

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Water Fern (Azolla filiculoides) Image copyright: Crown Copyright, GB Non-native Species Secretariat

Water fern (Azolla filiculoides): tiny, delicate leaves a little like scales: its fragile appearance hides a true monster capable of doubling its weight in two to three days. Download the from the Defra website (PDF)

If, horror of horrors, you find that you do have one of these , don't panic. You can leave it there: just make it part of your autumn pond maintenance to pull out excessive growth. The important thing is to avoid it escaping. Dispose of any you remove on the compost bin or in green bags, and clean your wellies before you go anywhere so you don't inadvertently walk plant fragments out of your garden. Finally, if you've removed water from the pond, dispose of it carefully: watering your plants with it is a safe bet.

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May your ponds stay free of green rugs for many years to come. If they're not, share your experiences in the comments below.

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Visit the website for details of plant and animals species that are not native to the UK.

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Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

My messy garden

I’ve returned to two moulting chickens and a dishevelled garden. Gertrude (the bluebell) has lost so many feathers that she looks almost plucked. Thankfully the new feathers are appearing as fast as the cold weather.

How lovely it is to be home, to come back to ripening , to fat runner beans ready for shelling, a small, but pleasing harvest of (a strange South American cucumber) and many and various greens. After being on the road and so much restaurant food, however good, a simple home cooked meal feels honest and fulfilling in a way that no chef cooked meals can ever achieve.

The night I returned we had a first hard frost that raced across the garden taking with it the , the (a Mexican coriander substitute) and the last of the Matt’s Wild Cherry tomatoes that are still holding on. I’ve harvested what fruit and leaves were left to make a sort of salsa in honour of all the good Mexican food I ate on the West Coast. What was left of the red tomatoes I dried in the dehydrator (you can do the same in your oven on the lowest setting with the door slightly ajar, to let out moisture, it takes several hours). The flavour is intense once dried, not as sweet as sun-dried toms, but good enough for pastas and stews. I finely dice them and then mix them up with dried chillies, salt, rosemary and dried garlic and thyme, sometimes I add a little sesame or juniper berries and use this as a herb mix for sauces. It makes a small harvest go a very long way and when you open the jar this intense waft of late summer comes out. It’s a pretty looking mix too.

My yakon

I’m eager to dig up my that has put on an incredible amount of growth over the summer. It’s a tender perennial with a large edible tuber (much like a Dahlia) that tastes of pear.Ìý I’ve got a small mountain of that I harvested from the centre of town and plan to make an alternative Waldorf salad from ’s book ‘ A Taste of the Unexpected’. But Mark tells me I need to be more patient and wait a little longer till I harvest. Apparently they mature very late in the season.

On the other side of the tracks (literally my house is one side and the allotment the other of a railway line) the allotment is looking good, surprisingly so for two weeks absence. I sowed a lot of green manure just before I left, mustards, Phacelias and grazing rye that and the slowing growth of the weeds means I came back to a rather tidy looking allotment. The turnips, oriental greens and autumn carrots are fat and healthy. The pumpkins have ripened and there were a few minute baby squash that I harvested attached to the tips (you can eat the young tendrils and leaves as well) and fried in butter, a delightful, if slightly odd dish.

Strangely the , my least favourite of the family, had been stripped by the pigeons, but the Asturian tree cabbage and black Tuscan kale, cavolo nero, has been left alone—perhaps the pigeons aren’t that discerning? The tree cabbage (giant pale almost lime green leaves) is almost tall and sturdy enough for a pigeon to sit in—I guess I shouldn’t invite trouble...

The Asturian tree cabbage

Alys Fowler is a garden writer and presenter of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardeners' World.

In the news...

Any gardener who cares about their garden wildlife will be watching progress closely at the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya, Japan, which opened amid dire and gloomy predictions for the world's wildlifeÌýthis week: scienceÌýcorrespondentÌýTom Fielden's painted a grim picture of apathy and a headlong spiral into oblivion for much of our natural world. If you need convincing that biodiversity matters, spare a thought for the poor apple growers in China who have to go round pollinating all their apple trees by hand because there aren't enough insects to do it for them: try that in your ownÌýgarden and you'll soon realise the point ofÌýwildlife, and lots of it.

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Congratulations to Ian and Stuart Paton, twin brothers from Hampshire who broke their own record for the largest pumpkin ever grown in the UK: 682kg (1,504 lbs) and 5m around the girth. Unfortunately poor old Toby Buckland's pumpkin, entered in the same Southampton show, didn't get a look-in: , 'bigger and better pumpkins won the day but still head held high'. Maybe next year.

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Elsewhere on the web...

The amazingly talented kids at the Writhlington School Orchid Project in Radstock, near Bath, have ; though since they smell of fresh mackerel that's less good news that it might seem.

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Meanwhile has been revealing her , Deb at has come up with some wicked ideas for ; and John Crace has been getting everyone hot under the collar about daffodils over at The Guardian – . 'Dull', 'hideous' and 'pointless', he says: but then his all-time favourite is the hopelessly over-the-top Fritillaria meleagris, which always smells faintly reminiscent of cat wee to me. Bring out your favourite bulbs – especially if they're daffs – and beat the drum for them here.

Out and about...

Apple Day this week – and that can mean only one thing. This weekend the whole country is going apple mad. So practice your apple bobbing technique, pick those mystery apples for identifying, and get along to an appley event near you.

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From an in Harogate with tasting, identification and advice to - a week-long series of apple events for all the family in Cambridge - there's something (in fact probably several things) apple-related going on near you all week long. Find a full on the charity Common Ground's website.

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If by now, however, you're all appled out, you can still have an autumnal time of it. in Gloucestershire is making the most of its dazzling annualÌýfireworks display of autumn colour withÌýits : have a go at tree-inspired art,Ìýand learn all about whyÌýleaves change colour.

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And in London, there's a rare opportunity to take a walk around in the company of Royal Parks gardeners to find out how they prepare this most special of parks for the winter ahead. It's free, but you've got to book via the .

If you spotted any horticultural news stories this week or have any tips for autumnal entertaining during half term, add your comments below for all to share.

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Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

East Anglia’s bright sunlight, little rainfall and low humidity means grapevines grow well here and, much more importantly, suffer less from moulds and rots as more humid areas. Even so, of the dozens of varieties I’ve grown, most are poor choices. It’s not that they won’t crop, most actually over-crop, and are sweet enough if thinned ruthlessly. No it’s the miserable way their glorious bunches rapidly rot given the slightest hint of damp. Even water vapour from a sagging gutter was sufficient to make one vine suffer mildew and it’s grapes to rot well before others.

I highly recommend Boskoop Glory, a tasty black, as this has proved by far and away the most reliable. With space to have several vines , a pinky red, is also worth trying as although running about average in miffy-ness it has an incredibly delicious Muscat flavour.

The Strawberry grape is contrary; highly productive, mildew resistant with rot free bunches the fruit has mediocre flavour- however my children love these purple grapes as the mouth feel is like eyeballs. The twins sort of helped with my ‘vendange’, despite eating and dropping more than made their buckets.

Ages ago I returned to a French farm over a dozen harvests and so it’s all a bit nostalgic- albeit on an absolutely minute scale. I still use my original , a small curved knife to sever the bunches. Of course instead of endless toiling for weeks my harvest takes but minutes. The same equipment used to crush and press my apples for juice was intended for grapes though these are much much quicker and proportionately also far more productive. The press can be cracked down faster, and further, but care needs taking not to go so far as to ‘make the pips squeak’ as then off flavours are extracted.

I rarely go on to make wine anymore; my grape juice is too good so it is promptly frozen in plastic bottles for drinking the rest of the year. When I made my juice into wine I ended up drinking both admittedly somewhat inferior wine and inferior (commercial) juice. Drinking my own juice and buying good organic wine has upped the quality of both many fold!

In a better year with more Siegerrebe grapes I would dry some as red raisins- delicious if somewhat seedy. (De-seeding is possible but messy and tedious). And I always dry some of my and indoor grapes. The first have unparalleled flavour and make the most exquisite muscatels. My white, or rather yellow, Chasselas D’or makes excellent sultanas but I have not yet settled on a better currant (Zante is reckoned the best but I’m searching for even more flavour).

You can also turn grape juice into tasty jelly or rather a range of jellies as each variety gives a different aroma. But I much prefer some juice as sorbet, mainly because I can pig an awful lot of this whilst still feeling relatively guilt free.

Have you had success with a particular grape variety? Perhaps you can offer suggestions for other parts of the UK? Add your comments below...

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time

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Quite soon, those of you who have ordered bare root shrubs, trees, roses etc., to be sent by mail order or courier service, can expect them to arrive as field lifting starts soon.

You will know that orders are delivered in sequence based on when they were confirmed – first in, first served.Ìý The trade will continue right through the dormant months, with plants arriving sometimes when weather and/or ground conditions are not amenable to planting.Ìý So, what’s to be done when that happens?

If you really have no time within the first few days to cope with them, do not panic, for a start the packaging is usually first class and in my experience, there is no harm in leaving the delivery intact and stood in the coldest corner of a shed or garage for about a week. You have breathing space.

When you do get to open the packaging, check that the plants correspond to the order form regarding number and variety. Examine each one looking for damaged tissue and obvious signs of disease and report back to the supplier accordingly. The roots should then be plunged in water and left to soak for a couple of hours or so. After that it may be possible to plant as intended. Whilst doing so, you may have to prune damaged roots or shorten some to facilitate planting.

This is often the case with roses which tend to have long fang-like roots, indeed, you may receive roses with roots that are bent unnaturally, some turned at right angles.Ìý This happens when the rootstocks are machine planted, if the seedling stock roots have not been trimmed to a uniform length to match the setting of the depth bar on the planter.

Sometimes, the planting location may not be ready or the soil conditions are bad – saturated with water, covered in snow or frozen.Ìý What’s to be done?ÌýÌý In many cases, there will be an area of garden ground under a hedge or along the back of a wall where the soil conditions are quite reasonable.Ìý The plants can be heeled in temporarily in such a location and remain quite safe for several months if necessary, until the final positions are ready to receive them. We have our own word for this process, based on the Scots word for a ditch -Ìý a sheugh!Ìý That actually helps you to visualise the process if I say the plants are sheughed in!

I have known of cases where the plants were heeled in, in a cold greenhouse and in the worst scenario, they can be planted in tubs or planters and held in a sheltered corner. The essence of all these options is to keep the roots from drying out by having them surrounded with soil, which has to be friable enough to shake down through the tangle of the root systems and then be firmed around them.

At the same time, the top growth may need to be supported to prevent damage.

PS – We have snow forecast for later this week.

If you would like to ask Jim a question about winter protection or keeping your winter garden looking and smelling good then you can add your questions to the Message Board and Jim will answer as many as possible in his next post.

Jim McColl presents ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's .

Have you been to your local Apple Day event yet?

If not, you'd better get your skates on - even though National Apple Day isn't til October 21st, many events are already happening around the country.

They're running until the end of this month, so have a look at the compiled by the charity and see if there's one near you. If you're a bit late, you could always enjoy your apples over the radio: The Food Programme's latest edition featured northern heirloom apple varieties and is just mouthwatering.

To mark Apple Day we thought we'd hold our own virtual Apple Day here at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening. A phalanx of experts from in Kent, which houses the , has been on hand to answer your questions, put to them via the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening Messageboard last week; so without further ado, we'll hand over to them to answer your queries. There's even a couple of pear questions thrown in for good measure.

Mieldeflores asked:

I'd like to plant an apple tree arch in my Yorkshire garden, preferably 2m high and approx 1m width. I like and apples. I live near allotments so pollination shouldn't be a problem!

- What types of tree/ would be best?

- What arches would be best? (I am guessing that some would be too flimsy to support 2 trees and fruit over time).

- I have an old (cankered) apple tree situated approx 3m away from the arch site. Would I have to cut it down AND dig out soil to avoid infecting the new trees?

Ìý

For the rootstock, you will need a dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock. will control the growth and allow the tree to fruit within about three years.

Concerning the arch, your tree may be there for twenty years or more, and so you should be prepared to install an arching framework which will not only take the weight and weather but is made of something that will not rot or corrode away in that time. A solid steel framework may be the answer.

Regarding your cankered apple tree, canker is a fungal disease and spores can last for years. So for safety's sake it's best to do all of the things you have suggested. As an added boost, you might also add a dose of good fungi, known as microrrhizal fungi (sold as 'Rootgrow'), sprinkled onto your new root ball.

hereisabee asked:

As an apple pruner I have this battle with owners who say: "the tree only fruits every other year" (biennial fruiting syndrome). There is no scientific reason for this, if the tree flowers it should fruit, providing there are insects available to pollinate the flowers?

Ìý

There seems to be no real reason why some varieties are biennial - and to confuse things further, some are just better in one year than the next. For some varieties a heavy crop one year can reduce the crop in the next, so if your tree is fruiting heavily you can reduce the crop by thinning out the young fruits in July - this should mean that next year's crop will improve. Of course, the weather can also be a factor: late frosts and droughts can both reduce crops dramatically.

koala_girl asked:

I planted a tree in 2004 and it is about 10' high. I prune it on Christmas day each year back to about 7', but it shoots up again in the spring. How can I tell what the rootstock is? I have still kept it staked as my garden is really windy. I read that some rootstocks have to be permanently staked so I am worried about taking the stake away. It is a 'family' apple tree with three varieties on it: James Grieve, Cox and Worcester. The James Grieve part grew more strongly than the others but I still get a decent amount of the other two varieties.

Ìý

From this pattern of growth the rootstock is probably or , which means the stake can be safely removed after about five years. One of the problems with a family tree is the different growth rates of the varieties. The 'James Grieve' may need to be kept in check more than the others as it clearly has a more vigorous growth - but if you are happy with it as it is, then fine, just leave it to grow.

royn45 asked:

I've just read a 'things to do in the garden this week', and one of the tasks was finish summer prunuing of pears and apple trees. What amount of pruning does this involve?

Ìý

Through the summer your trees will have made a lot of leafy growth, most of it going upwards. Late summer pruning reduces this semi-woody upward growth to the leafy cluster at the bottom. This helps to develop fruiting spurs for next year. If you are still developing the shape of a young tree, be careful about what, and how much, you cut off though and go easy at first.

Mrs P Randle asked:

My pear tree has bright orange marks on the leaves with spore-like spikey growth on the underside of the leaves. What is the problem and how can I treat it?

Ìý

This is pear leaf blister mite, for which unfortunately there is no method of control available to gardeners. The only action that you can take is to collect all the leaf fall and then bin or burn it to ensure it does not infect the tree next year. You need to ensure all leaves have been disposed of carefully.

If you want to meet the experts in person, Brogdale has its own Apple Festival, held at the farm in Faversham, Kent on October 23rd and 24th.

How well do you know your apples?

We also asked the Brogdale experts to help us identify some apples from photographs but underestimated quite how tricky this is to do without a sample to cut up and examine. So here's a a bit of fun for you.....Gary Hobson told us an interesting story on the message board about some apple trees his father planted in the early part of the 20th century. Gary has a list the varieties but can't work out which tree is which variety. Can you help?!

Gary's father wrote a list of the varieties in 1942:

Monarch, James Greive, Peasgood Nonsuch, Warner King, Beauty of Bath, Worcester Permain, Cox Orange Pippin, Bramley Seedling, Newton Wonder, King of the Pippin, Lanes Prince Albert, Blenheim Orange, Ellison Orange, Early Victoria, Allington Pippin.

If you think you know the variety of the apples in the pictures, write it in the comments below. There are some clues from Gary himself and from the experts at Brogdale.

TREE 1

Gary says: This one is Early Victoria. The fruits are very large, yellowish, and soft. This particular tree was so heavily loaded, a couple of months ago, that the branches were being dragged down, so I removed a lot of the fruit.

Brogdale: Yes, it probably is Early Victoria.

Ìý

TREE 2

Gary says: This is a smallish tree, very heavy crop. The fruit is early, very sweet, and soft to bite.

Brogdale: The red colour isn't quite right for Worcester or Beauty of Bath which are the earliest on the list.

Ìý

TREE 3

Gary says: The fruit is rather similar to tree #2, but this is a larger tree, and slightly later. This tree also supports a climbing rose and honeysuckle.

Brogdale: Could be James Grieve.

Ìý

TREE 4

Gary says: This may be Bramley. This is a large tree (for an apple). The height is approximately 25'. Radius of the 'skirt' is about 18'. I cut this tree back massively (by about 50%), a couple of years ago, to try to let some light into the understorey.

Brogdale: It probably is Bramley.

Ìý

TREE 5

Gary says: This might be Beauty of Bath. Most of the fruit on this tree has fallen.

Brogdale: This can't be Beauty of Bath as that variety is red!

Ìý

TREE 6

Gary says: I've no clues as to what this is.

Brogdale: Shape is like Lane's Prince Albert but if this photo was taken in October the apples should be looking redder.

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TREE 7

Gary says: I used to think that this was a Bramley. But it's a smaller tree than the other two 'Bramleys'.

Brogdale: Most likely to be Newton Wonder.

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TREE 8

Gary says: This is another big tree, and I always thought this was a Bramley (but it might not be).

Brogdale: Could be Bramley but could also be Monarch.

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TREE 9

Gary says: This could be a Cox? Sweet, crisp, with a slight tang to the peel.

Brogdale: Yes, agree it's likely to be a Cox.

Ìý

TREE 10

Gary says: This fruit has a very characteristic elongated shape.

Brogdale: Likely to be Allington Pippin.

Ìý

TREE 11

Gary says: I don't know what this is. The fruits are very high up, beyond reach, even with a step-ladder.

Brogdale: It could be Peasgood Nonsuch as it's a large tree.

Ìý

TREE 12

Gary says: This one is growing in the shade of some taller trees, so that might affect both the ripeness of the fruit, and the amount of water the tree can draw upon.

Brogdale: It could be Warner's King.

Thanks go to the team at for their time in helping to identify these apples and in answering the questions.

Jennifer Redmond is the host of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening Blog.

A border at Montacute designed by Phyllis Reiss

Now I'm afraid you boys are going to have to forgive me here, but I'm about to turn this gardening blog over to the sisterhood for a bit.

That's exactly what the National Trust have done at the Somerset gardens of , and ,Ìýwhich have beenÌý.

All three gardens were created by women, respectively, , and Phyllis Reiss, 1930s plantswoman par excellence. The exhibition, running until the end of this month, pays tribute to their vision: and also asks what influence women have in gardening today.

Well: I can tell you now that two of these stalwart ladies spend much of their posthumousÌýtimeÌýin my garden,Ìýstanding at my shoulder and telling me how it should be done.

Gertrude is forever giving me a severe telling-off over my incurable plantaholism, disciplining me to exercise good Victorian values and buy not one of each plant but five, or seven: you can't squeeze in as many different plants, but you can plant in drifts, and believe me, that's the difference between a hotch-potch and a fabulous garden.

And Vita was whispering in my ear all the time I was designing my front garden, which is a white garden full of blowsy Philadelphus 'Manteau d'Hermine', snowy Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' and Leucanthemella serotina. Vita's clever planting at taught me to add just enough green (box edging, Nicotiana 'Lime Green'Ìýand too-cool-for-school 'Spring Green' tulips) to tone down the monochrome - though I did add splashes of background purple foliage, as my own little twist.

I could add two more Somerset-based ladiesÌýto my list of gardening heroines: Margery Fish, credited with inventing the 20th-century cottage garden at nearby ,Ìýhas had me mixing veg with my flowers for years; and , at Hadspen House only a few miles further,Ìýmakes me crave the ability to achieve simple, timeless garden architecture with designs as sublimely elegant as hers.

has me planning out a cutting garden for that sunny patch to the side of the house, and our very own Carol Klein got me digging up my sumptuous scarlet 'Goliath' oriental poppies the other day to winkle out some roots for cuttings. Alys Fowler is also likely to be held responsible when I fill my entireÌýhouse with fermentingÌýelderflower champagne next spring (hopefully she'll also get some of the credit forÌýthe sparklingly perfectÌýresults).

Then there's , whose inspirational talk at the not only got me drinking fresh rosemary tea each morning (: it helps the memory, you know. If I remember rightly): she also inspired me to convert the frankly uninspiring rockery outside the front door into a herb garden instead. And let's not forget , currently informing my choices for a damp shady spot to the side.

So let's hear it for the girls: do you have horticultural heroines? Which women have guided your trowel over the years? And what difference have they made to your gardening?

You can listen to an item about the life of Vita Sackville-West from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 Women's Hour archive.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

The bulk of my apples are juiced and frozen for drinking the rest of the year, a few are made into cider, and I process others in several different ways. I seldom freeze much apple puree now as my freezer is getting full, when there's space in the new year I will puree stored apples that are looking dubious. However I am making puree for fruit leather; an ancient sweet that's healthy, tasty and keeps well.

Using apple puree as the base ingredient it's given more flavour with fruits I have frozen or with any of my jams or jellies that have failed to set. (The extra sugar is no problem, indeed even an advantage.) Blackcurrant and strawberry are my kids' favourites, however almost any strong flavoured fruit can be used.

The cooked combined purees are sieved to remove bits and reduced by simmering till thickened. Spread 1-2cm deep on oiled trays the puree is slowly dried to a flexible sheet that can be peeled off and hung to dry further. Dusted with corn starch to stop it sticking this can be folded up and stored, or used immediately.

Bits are chewed as sweets - the concentration of sugars, flavours and acids makes them really tasty. My kids' favourite is when it's sliced thinly into chewy 'snakes'.

Of course I also dry some apples as rings- simply cored, peeled, sliced and strung up to dry. However I find apple rings a bit pappy, and pear rings, or halves, a bit greasy.

Nashis with blossom

Much much better are dried nashis, these fruits resemble a russet apple but are an Asian pear, I grow the Kumoi variety. (A small tree, self fertile and problem free other than brittle branches.) The dried rings of these are intensely flavoured, get sweeter as chewed and of a good texture, so I make more of these than of the other fruits. (Incidentally although many plums dry fairly well and are delicious at first I only process a few as in storage they relentlessly turn to prunes - and I can only handle so many of those.)

My other pears are cropping well, I'm checking them daily to pick and store each at its best, especially the gorgeous Doyenne du Comice I grow on a wall, these will be so good next month. But pears always over-crop and many go over before you can eat them. A simple way of using these is to juice them. Unfortunately it's hard to squeeze pear juice out - unripe and the juice is sour, ripe or over and the fruits 'toothpaste’.

Instead surplus pears are washed and chopped, packed into a big saucepan and simmered overnight with only enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. In the morning the lot have reduced to juice and the bits which I sieve out. The juice is then either drunk as is, frozen for later or best of all boiled down to a thick liquid much resembling, and used just like, maple syrup.

Find more ideas for using up your apples and pears on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Food website.

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.

From time to time in the series, we shine the spotlight on garden tools. It is usually as a result of some ‘new answer to our prayers’ being launched on the market, claimed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. My first reaction is often to question whether any consumer research and user trials have been carried out beforehand.

My original fork and spade are both over 50 years old!

We have asked the question: what are the most essential pieces of garden equipment you need to till the soil, plant and care for your fruit, vegetables and decorative border plants. The first thing to highlight is that most of the tools you acquire will be with you for the rest of your life, if you buy wisely, look after them properly and avoid losing them.

These thoughts came to me as I watched the wonderful volunteers help with our last Community Garden project to be recorded this year. It was located behind the recently completed Small Animal Hospital at the a few miles south of Edinburgh. We had children in various groups, people who were clients of the hospital, retired people wishing to be helpful.Ìý I could see straight away that some knew exactly what they were about to tackle and others had no tools with them and had to be supplied with something appropriate.

Let's get down to the essentials. For a planting job, the first vital implement is a digging fork to slacken up the soil to a reasonable depth. On a new site where there may be some surface compaction and large stones, bricks etc just below the surface – a favourite trick of builders keen to get a new house completed, the fork is invaluable. Where a spade will hardly make an impression on a compacted surface, the fork can be eased through it. When a spade hits a stone it will most likely come to a sudden halt whereas using a fork you will readily find an edge or a corner to start the job of prising the offending piece out of that spot where you have chosen to plant something.

I still have my original fork and spade – both are over 50 years old now but in recent times I have turned to the almost exclusive use of a border spade and fork, I wonder why?Ìý The border spade is made of stainless steel but the other three are more traditional, they are cleaned and oiled before being stored away after use!

My trowel and hand fork are over 40 years old!

My next pairing is the trowel and hand fork, they are certainly over 40 years old and there is nothing I have seen since to match them, particularly the trowel.Ìý Why?Ìý The handle and the blade are close-coupled, there is no extended swans neck in between to make the implement longer, heavier and more unwieldy.

Finally the hoe, I use an old-fashioned push hoe but I have to confess that I think the most successful modern equivalent has been the stainless steel Swoe.

Is there a garden tool you couldn't live without? Or something you discovered recently that you wished you'd discovered years ago? Tell us in the comments below so we can all learn and make life easier!

Alys is currently on a plants and gardens tour of the USA and sends this post from California.

Hello from the U.S !

This is the , the part known as Joshua Tree, a single street town full of gentle hippies and old school homesteaders and then a great expanse of desert.Ìý Hot, dry, terrifying, beautiful, wild and weird. The desert is everything and nothing you might expect.

The indicator species is the Joshua tree, . They come in every twisted comic shape you can imagine and can in time reach up to 40 feet high, which is an impressive height for something that doesn't have growth rings (as a member of the family, Yuccas are ).

The park ranger, at , told me that the straight, upright Joshuas have never bloomed, those that branch have and thus those with lots of branches have done a fair bit of flowering.

It’s thought that below freezing temperatures damage the growing ends of the branch stimulating flowering and more branching. This plant is key to surviving in this desert - it provided the Native Americans with food and materials. The tough leaves were used to make baskets and shoes, the flowering buds eaten raw and seeds were roasted. Alive or dead these plants are home to many animals. We found a hollowed out trunk had been made in a lizard motel with the Yucca night lizards sleeping the day off before a night of work.

Below the Joshua tree is another Yucca, the Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera. It’s pretty easy to tell them apart as Y. schidigera has longer wider leaves and fibrous thread curling along the leaf margin.

For any plant in this desert, germination is a risky business, time it wrong and there will be no rain for another nine months. We arrived after the first long burst of rain and you can feel the desert soaking up life.

The Joshua tree only germinates after several burst of rain and you can find the young plants sprouting from the shade protection of other plants, such as this one literally sprouting from underneath a prickly pear cactus.

It’s pretty exciting seeing so many weird and wonderful plants. Most of the desert looks dead, lots of bare-branched plants and buff-coloured stalks, but everything just in waiting.

A black-bush that may look dead, but is actually alive. It sheds all its leaves in the summer to conserve moisture.

There was this incredible tiny little plant — all thread-thin sandy stalks — which I presumed was dead and yet on another plant there were delicate mauve flowers. Imagine...the plant has no leaves, no visible source of food and yet it’s only just beginning on the most energy expensive and fragile process of reproduction. I mean the thing's still got to make seeds!

Something so ephemeral looking had a whole other world below the ground. When you first get to the desert it looks as if someone has placed all the Joshua trees on a grid, like an orchard and apart from the opportunistic young Joshuas, most plants are no where near their neighbours. Above may look half baked but underground these plants have amazing root systems and it becomes quite clear that the spacing is nature’s way of making sure everyone gets enough water. You find almost no surface roots. I guess they would be burnt dry in minutes on a summer day which easily reaches 115F (46 deg. C).

Buffalo gourd Curcurbita foetidissima

Take this buffalo gourd, Curcurbita foetidissima, which although rather pretty, is completely inedible (by us at least, The Audubon Society Deserts book says it would induce madness) and has an extensive root system. A single species can have up to 100 pounds of fleshy roots.

The desert is truly beautiful, but it’s also scary. Perhaps it just because I’m too pale for this climate, but the minute I stepped out of the car, slathered in, as Nabokov put it, ‘oceans of lotion and streams of creams’ I felt a sort of primordial fear that I don’t belong here. And then my cousin let out the most blood curdling stream.

And there it was, perfectly adapted to its home, sauntering across the path — a desert tarantula. The guide book said it was pretty harmless, no worse than a bee sting and entirely sure that it didn't want to bite us, but on the look out for a mate. But I am telling you a spider that big is freaky scary.

My arm is in the picture for scale! And yes I was really scared of getting up close.

Alys Fowler is a garden writer and presenter of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardeners' World.

Ìý

Before you read the rest of thisÌýpost I want you to take a quick walk around your garden – don’t worry; I’ll still be here when you get back. If you’re not near your garden, or the weather’s too vile to venture outside, do a virtual tour in your mind.

Ìý

I took a little turn round this morning and, if I’m being totally honest, it looks a state.

Don’t get me wrong, there are pockets of loveliness, but generally it needs a bit of TLC. There are spent tomato plants on the patio, a dahlia that’s in desperate need of staking, leaves littering the pond and a great branch of Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ has fallen right across the path. I could go on, but I haven’t really scratched the surface and I’m sure you get the general idea. But you know the most irritating thing about it all? I was in exactly this position last October – I haven’t learnt one thing from my mistakes of 2009.

Now, I’m not going to get all het up about the mistakes I’ve made this year. In fact, I see them as an opportunity to take stock and make a few decisions about things I’ll do differently next year. Monty Don has always said he considers October to be the start of the gardening year, and if it’s good enough for him, it’s certainly good enough for me.

The new regime starts right here which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense. The mistakes and failures are fresh at the moment, staring me in the face. I’ll only forget them after a winter of sitting by the fire, and make them all over again come spring.

So, I here now declare (very publicly so I can’t squirm out of anything) that my 2010 end of year gardening resolutions are as follows:

ÌýRight then, now it’s your turn. Remember the walk you just took around you plot? What did you spot that needs to be different next year? Post your end of year resolutions in the comments box for the whole ´óÏó´«Ã½ online gardening community to witness. We’ll be checking up on you come autumn 2011.

Kevin Smith is a garden writer, and former Commissioning Editor of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardeners' World Magazine.

The days are drawing in, there's a definite autumn chill on the air – and I'm starting to worry about my creepy-crawly friends, to say nothing of the feathery and prickly ones, and how they're going to get through the winter.

Gardening with wildlife in mind pays huge dividends – and not just if you like looking at butterflies. Frogs and toads work their way through their own bodyweight in slugs, hedgehogs make short work of caterpillars, and finches and bluetits effortlessly strip rose stems bare of aphids. Even the littlies like ground beetles play their part: slug eggs and insect larvae like leatherjackets and cutworms are all on their menu.

Ìý

This has not been a vintage year for wildlife. The latest worrying news is thatÌýgreenfinchesÌýhave been struggling to cope with an outbreak of a particularly nasty – contaminated birdfeeders and birdbaths spread the infection so keep yours spotless. Breathing Places has plenty of useful information on how to keep the birds in your garden happy – and healthy - over winter.

Ìý

It's not all gloom, though. Results are in for – and it turns out that one in four of us have hedgehogs in our gardens. Populations are particularly on the rise in city gardens, where about one in three of us have prickly visitors, second only to foxes (and cats – though I'm not sure they count as wildlife. Before you get hot under the collar about cats in your garden – last week's More or Less on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 debated whether cats are to blame for falling numbers of garden birds (start listening at 13'30 in). It's not as open-and-shut as you'd think).

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Hedgehogs are making themselves at home in gardens all over the country. , a family has taken up residence under a tarpaulin at ; and earlier this year they were even making friends with foxcubs in.

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So – how can you encourage Mrs (and Mr) Tiggywinkle to visit your garden too?

Ìý

• Provide feed in warm spells through winter, when they sometimes emerge from hibernation for a short while: meaty pet food, mealworms or sunflower hearts with a bowl of water keep them going.
• will provide some shelter, and somewhere to hibernate over winter. Tuck it under your hedge to keep it snug and protect it from predators.
• An undisturbed corner set aside for wildlife, with a logpile and a healthy patch of weeds provides a home not just for hedgehogs but other creatures too.
• Avoid potentially fatal hazards such as steep-sided ponds, metaldehyde-based slug pellets, and bonfire heaps – favourite hiding places for hedgehogs but lethal when you come to set fire to them.
• Consider adopting a hedgehog: sanctuaries need safe, caring homes in enclosed gardens for hedgehogs disabled in accidents who wouldn't otherwise be able to fend for themselves.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

Ìý

I’m currently replenishing the juice stores. I run two deep freezers from now till spring,Ìýthe extra oneÌýjust to hold plastic lemonade bottles of juices.

I’ve been reluctant to crush my small surplus of earliest apples - partly as their juice is not quite so delicious as mid-season apples and I prefer to save space for that and grape juice about to come. But the main reason I did not crush was too many wasps about to contemplate such an easy source of inadvertent stings.

Wasps find fruit juice from afar and they soon discover you at work - and falling in the pulp makes handling it precarious. Still, cold wet weather means they’ve gone now. So I’m rounding up surplus apples and storing them temporarily under cover in separate plastic bags and buckets. Cookers as well as desserts, as the former add the tartness needed - much commercial juice is mostly Bramleys.

I’m collecting damaged as well as perfect fruits as they’ll be cleaned when processed. Each evening a mixture of varieties is selected as this gives a better juice like a single cru. Though I dearly love pure russet juice, their fruit goes further when crushed with others.

The selection is washed in a tin bath, an heirloom from Grandad’s days in which I suspect I was once scrubbed. If the apples are muddy, which many windfalls are this year, then I add washing up detergent to help clean them. (Ideally apples with mud on should not be used but the winds have brought too many down to leave to waste.)

The apple press (photo by Peter Cassidy from Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own by Bob Flowerdew (Kyle Cathie)

The apples are rinsed off and two large plastic buckets filled to overflowing. If the majority are ripe and good with little to be removed then this turns into about a gallon to a gallon and a half of juice. Each apple is inspected, all rots, ‘squatters’ and bruises cut out, then the good part cut into chunks. These are dropped into a hand turned machine which uses plastic interlocking cogs to turn them to coarse pulp.

My five year old daughter loves helping turning. The two of us get the apples pulped in about half an hour if they are mostly ‘clean’. The pulp is transferred to the press. I once used a big wooden one much like my grandad’s but his cider was rotgut and I’m after exquisite juice. So I use a small barrel type grape press. Once filled with pulp it’s squeezed by screwing down the top plate with a big nut. (It’s important not to proceed too quickly and to back off regularly so air can be re-admitted and thus more juice expelled.)

Running from the press the gorgeous juice is passed through a fine sieve into plastic bottles. Much is drunk fresh, the rest are frozen (the caps screwed tight after a little squeeze to give space for expansion.) After de-frosting the juice is as good as fresh - for about three days –then it’s on it’s way to cider, but that’s another story.

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time

Greetings from Scotland where we had our first frosts about 10 days ago. For the record, -4.2C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge which sits about 250 metres above sea level, a few miles east of Fort William.Ìý A warning to those of us at lower levels that we must start to batten down the hatches because the outdoor growing season is coming to an end.

The last programme in the 2010 Beechgrove Garden series has just been broadcast and included an item about saving our half hardy perennials (HHPs), as we empty beds, borders and baskets. Perhaps you just throw the lot out with the intention of buying fresh plants next spring. What a waste!

Osteospermum plants potted up for over-wintering

Half hardy perennials cannot survive the extended periods of cold which are part of our winter. Nowadays there are many more of these HHPs available, very popular for container gardening, I have in mind the likes of argyranthemum, verbena and osteospermum. Some may be labelled ‘hardy’ and I have a healthy scepticism about that because, as a believing soul, in the past I have accepted that statement as gospel, to my cost.Ìý

HHPsÌý can be overwintered for use the following season in two different ways:

Firstly, every year in Beechgrove, we have a propagation session starting in August, taking cuttings of HHPs from the flowering plants. They will be rooted and potted up by now and can be kept in a greenhouse which is frost free or indeed on a window sill in the house. As a result, when lifting the mature plants now, they can be thrown on the compost heap.

Secondly if you don’t have the facilities (or inclination) to take cuttings, lift the plants now, prune back the tops and pot up using some old growing medium. Protect them over the winter, in a cold greenhouse or frame, covering with fleece during severe weather with a view to planting them out again next year.Ìý We have used both methods with osteospermums.

Blue Danube foliage infected by blight compared with Axona (white flowers)

Our early main crop potatoes are lifted and safely in the shed. This year, we grew the new Sarpo variety .Ìý As you will know these varieties from the Sarvari stable, like and Mira, are substantially resistant to Potato Blight and I was anxious to see how the new one performed.

Imagine my anxiety and disappointment when the foliage was badly infected by the fungus, whilst Axona right next to it was clean.Ìý Needless to say, off came the foliage PDQ and thankfully, the tubers look good.

Checking back on the literature, we are warned that the leaves may be affected but that the tubers are resistant.

Did anyone else try the new Blue Danube variety?

Jim McColl presents ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's .

According to the poet , autumn is the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness. How apt that is!Ìý

People often ask me, 'What is the garden's favourite season?' Most will think it is spring - but you know, serious gardeners don't have time to notice spring as they're too busy.

Give me autumn any time: you can step back and enjoy what the garden wants to give you as the curtain comes down on summer and weÌýcanÌýenjoyÌýthe final act of the year.

The Japanese Tea House in autumn (photo by George Littler and Peter Spooner)

The garden here at has some magnificent trees, and as the structural planting consists of quite a number of beech. The avenues look stunning as the sunlight catches the bronze of the leaves in late afternoon.

A stunning acer in the Japanese Garden (photo by George Littler and Peter Spooner)

It's been a very fruitful year in all parts of the garden, but now as things start to slow down there is an opportunity to enjoy what looks like being a particularly delightful autumn.

But one of the main highlights for me is our - and it looks at its very best at this time of year. As the autumn sun penetrates the foliage of the surrounding conifers in the late afternoon, the whole of the garden is 'backlit' to give an electric effect.

Then as the leaves from the maples fall to cover the cushions of moss, the ground takes on the look of a very expensive and rich Axminster carpet! From other angles the trees are reflected int he water, providing yet another dimension to the garden.

Some of the plants in this area which are truly lovely at this time of year are the russet-coloured Royal Fern of Japan (Osmunda regalis) and the red leaves of Euonymus europaeus.

But I've also got a soft spot for the dozens of trees which look so wonderful at this time of year: and particularly acers, so perfect for the Japanese garden - or indeed anywhere with a little shade where a splash of colour in autumn is needed.

Here areÌýsome of my favourites, the very best acersÌýfor autumn colour. Come and find them in the around now and you'll see what I mean.

Acer palmatum ‘B±ô´Ç´Ç»å²µ´Ç´Ç»å’: broadly-toothed leaves of deepest purple turning scarlet in autumn

Acer palmatumÌý ‘Osakazuki’: large, seven-lobed leaves which turn through burnished bronze to scarlet in autumn

Acer japonicum ‘A³¦´Ç²Ô¾±³Ù¾±´Ú´Ç±ô¾±³Ü³¾': also known as the Full Moon Maple, this is one of the loveliest maples withÌýelegantly serrated leaves of fresh green turning bright red in autumn.Ìý

Acer japonicum ‘Green Cascade’: a low-growing tree with a weeping habit and lacy, deeply-serrated leaves which turn bright orange, yellow and crimson at this time of year.

AndÌýonce you've plantedÌýall those, you can turn theÌýautumn colour up another notch with theseÌýspectacular autumn shrubs.ÌýÌý

Enkianthus campanulatus: the perfect choice for a woodland spot in an acid soil: leaves turn fiery orange and red in autumnÌý

Azalea mollis: like most deciduous azaleas this easy-going shrub has spectacular autumn colouring

Clethra alnifolia: the sweet pepper bush is perfect for acid soils and turns a dazzling yellow in autumn

Euonymus europaeus: our native spindle turns spectacular shades of scarlet in autumn, but also bears unusualÌýorange and pink winged berries which last well into winter

Nandina domestica: also known as the sacred bamboo of Japan, this easy-going shrub is not related to bamboo but has a similar effect in the garden and is exquisite in Japanese garden settings.

Sam Youd is Gardens Manager at , including the Japanese Garden - widely recognised as amongÌýthe best Japanese gardens in Europe.

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Do you know your yacon from your oca? Have you wondered if it's possible to grow your own water chestnuts? And what exactly are Buddha's fingers anyway?

Colocasia esculenta or taro

I have to admit to a secret obsession with exotic veg. It all began with a few sweet potatoes in a tub: and now I've got tomatilloes in the greenhouse, a yacon root in my jungle garden and an order in for some taro – I know it as Colocasia esculenta – which I hope will drape elegantly over my pond all summer before I eat its roots (if I can bear to: this is a seriously gorgeous plant) cooked like potatoes next autumn.

I'm not the only one, either. recommends achocha (like teardrop-shaped beans, apparently) and the delicious-sounding Japanese wineberry; and Mark Diacono's is entirely dedicated to finding out what far-flung fruits will grow here. So far he's managed olives, pecan nuts, guavas and Szechuan peppers. As if that wasn't enough, there are now , and Aberglasney in Carmarthenshire is making ice cream out of its . There's change afoot in our veg gardens, and all those cabbages, leeks and runner beans are beginning to look decidedly old-fashioned.

So I'm fascinated by s latest project to collect the seed from so-called 'exotics' brought to the UK over the last 40 years as people from Asia and the Caribbean settled here and started growing their equivalent of carrots and spuds in allotments and gardens.

The project, called '', has spent the summer scouring allotments all over the Midlands collecting not just samples of plants to grow on, but also gardening lore handed down from generation to generation on how best to cultivate them.

Sally Cunningham, who runs the project, Ìý that what they found didn't always taste that great – the word 'mucilaginous' used to describe chayote leaves hardly whets the appetite – and she's been having trouble working out what some of them are from the description 'it's a bean that tastes really good'. But hers is a job I covet: just imagine getting to plant mystery seeds every day just to see what comes up.

Amaranth

The extraordinary thing is that over the years strains of, say, callaloo (Amaranthus sp.) from Jamaica and Bangladesh have adapted to UK conditions – so now the plants growing in those Birmingham allotments put up with cooler weather and a shorter growing season than the ones back home.

You can see the fruits of their labours (pun entirely intended, I'm afraid) tomorrow, Sunday 3^rd October, at the first-ever at Ryton Gardens, Garden Organic's Warwickshire show garden: and that's where you'll find all the answers to the questions above, as well as getting to eat them and learning how to grow them. Your veg garden may never be the same again.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening team.

In the , the ground was covered in snow from mid December to mid March with no break.Ìý It seems to me that some weather conditions are appearing at the wrong times – strong, damaging winds in the spring just as the new foliage on our trees is unfurling. I hate shuffling through piles of young leaves stripped from the branches; just think the poor trees have to start the process all over again.

Moving on, here in Scotland, we had ski-ing in JUNE and then to crown it all there have been tropical downpours that flatten vegetables and herbaceous plants, yet perversely, in some parts of Scotland there has been serious drought.

Despite all that, we have had some good results in the garden. At Beechgrove each year we design and plant up a number of Observational Trials.Ìý These are not statistically sustainable results. The picture shows the trail of Chard varieties.Ìý Some seem to have done better than others. You pays your money and makes your own choice!

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The varieties we trialled were:

Leaf Beet Bright Yellow (T&M)
Leaf Beet Lucullus (T&M)
Leaf Beet Bright Lights (T&M)
Rhubarb Chard (T&M)
Swiss Chard Charlotte (DTB)
White Silver (DTB)
Perpetual Spinach (DTB)
Chard Rhubarb Vulcan (MRF)
Oriole Orange (OGC)
Erbette (OGC)

One of the strongest growers was the white-stemmed 'Lucullus' - the mixture is colourful and happens to grow well with us. But I would single out the 'Bright Lights' as my favourite because it's great in limited spaces.

Chard is not one of my favourite vegetables 'on th' plate' but that is another story. I can just about find a few feet to accommodate it for the sake of others!

Begonia 'Pin-up Flame'

Turning to bedding plants, the most versatile, reliable and colourful bedding plant of all time surely has to be the begonia.Ìý We trialled a range of them during this season and despite the weather, they have been magnificent.Ìý

Experienced gardeners are well aware of that but one of the crucial elements of any television gardening programme is that, by its very nature it is non-discriminatory and therefore it is our duty to highlight the reliable performers for the benefit of new gardeners.

Tuberous begonias are my favourite, the ‘Non Stop’ range coming top of the list. With a little attention to detail, the tubers can be stored over winter and perform for us again next year.

Begonia 'Pin-up Rose'

About now, as we clear the beds, we have to lift the plants carefully; shaking off as much soil as possible, then they are transferred to open trays. I stack them in the cold greenhouse to allow light and air to dry out the tubers. Soon the foliage will die back and can be removed to the compost heap. My next move is to use a layer of newspaper to line the trays before placing the bare tubers in a single layer in each tray, then cover with some old potting compost.Ìý The aim should be to keep tubers free from frost and just damp enough to prevent desiccation.Ìý The ideal storage space doesn’t exist for most of us nowadays – that was the cellar under the house which usually had an earthen floor, a damp atmosphere and a very constant temperature, a few degrees above freezing.Ìý Can you match that?

My old Dad, after relevant negotiations, stored his under the bed in the spare room but we didn’t have central heating in those days and the room was seldom used in winter so it was an ideal spot.

Jim McColl presents ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's .

I thought I'd start with some history...My garden lies on the border twixt Suffolk and Norfolk. My family, on both sides, have lived here in the Waveney valley for many centuries; on mother's side I'm the fifth generation living in this village. Gardening and farming are in my blood and I soon took interest, especially in cherries, strawberries and raspberries!

I tended my first plot when very young and have rarely stopped since. My current empire is nearly three quarters of an acre/half a hectare on the southern side of the village still surrounded on all sides by other gardens creating seven adjacent and five more overlooking neighbours. So, as 'good fences make good neighbours' I maintain twelve foot native and leylandii hedges and rarely interact with them. Or indeed anyone else. For although not quite a recluse I'm so interested in my garden I'm out there too much of the time, and much to my wife's annoyance.

I originally desired to prove one can grow almost anything organically, and of course wanted to provide the finest comestibles for myself and family. However over the years this simple model has changed to more research and experimentation into unusual and controversial methods (particularly companion effects), to checking accepted ideas for veracity and to trialling as many varieties of edible and scented plants as I can find.

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My garden is not exactly 'run of the mill'. It's more of an experimental laboratory and over nearly thirty years some areas have been re-worked multiple times, though obviously major trees, sheds and forty raised beds have remained fairly constant. I'm fortunate to have space to conduct long term trials with dubious outcomes. Many unusual plants have been planted with hopes of hybridising improved fruits- such as the Sambucus canadensis (American elderberry), Sambucus caerula (blue elderberry), Xanthoceras sorbifolia (yellowhorn) (which has gorgeous edible flowers, leaves and nuts), (Nettle trees) and occidentalis.

Regrettably most uncommon foods are justly so - they're either difficult to crop or have poor palatability compared to established favourites.

, and evening primrose roots are good examples, all are edible in part but not that pleasing to many people's palate, though each to their own. Even with huge home production I'm not, and do not try to be, self sufficient - my crops of olives, oranges and coffee are supplemented from the shops as well as cereal and dairy products. However I do have hens for eggs and meat, and every so often raise crops of rabbit, duck and goose.

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Currently I've no bees losing them to a couple of years ago but will soon start again for that so delicious honey fresh from the comb.

Right now I'm busy fetching in the last harvests - there are some potatoes left to dig, beans to dry, seeds to save. Pears are ripening, currently I'm enjoying Beurre Hardy to excess whilst squeezing apples for juice and cider, and making fruit leather, but much more on these in my next post...

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time

Photos by Peter Cassidy from Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own by Bob Flowerdew (Kyle Cathie, £14.99)

Hello lovely gardening enthusiasts and experts. Welcome to the new Gardening Blog.
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We think it's the perfect time of year to be starting a gardening blog. There's often less on the telly and the radio during the colder months and this blog will be going to great lengths to satisfy your appetite for horticultural inspiration, problem-solving and sheer delight in plants and gardens.
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I'm your host and will be responding to your comments and helping you find solutions to your horticultural headaches with the help of our regular team of writers and our many guests.
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Our regular writers will be Alys Fowler, writer and presenter of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardeners' World, organic gardener Bob Flowerdew, who's a regular panellist on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time and Jim McColl presenter of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's .

Our staff writer, Sally Nex, will be keeping an eye out for interesting news and views from the horticultural world with a weekly round up plus other titbits.

The Gardening Message Board has been going strong for many years and there is a fantastic wealth of knowledge amongst the community members. If you have a gardening question, do post it on the Garden Clinic topic where the community will offer advice and, from now on, we'll be scouting that topic for recurring themes and intriguing problems and putting them to our guests and regular writers.

If you have any ideas for this blog please do leave your comments at the bottom of this post.

Jennifer Redmond is the host of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Gardening Blog.