About container-grown fruit and veg

There is a whole range of crops suitable for growing in pots. For the greatest choice of plants, grow from seed, but if you don't mind too much about the variety, buy ready grown plants or plug plants from garden centres or mail-order suppliers.

It's best to try compact plants such as sweet peppers, chilli peppers, aubergine and tumbling varieties of tomatoes, rather than tall growing vegetables such as Brussels sprouts that demand lots of water and can be blown down easily

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How to combat the rise in the mosquito population

Mosquito Larvae

There is some evidence of a rise in the mosquito population.  This is being blamed by researchers on the growing popularity of water butts: mosquitoes  lay their eggs on the surface of stagnant water.

The mosquito larvae look like little hairy worms that hang upside down from the surface of the water.  When disturbed they wiggle down to escape.  However, as they are air breathing they cannot stay down indefinitely.

This is one nuisance that it should be easy to combat: if you put a lid on the butt or cover it with fine mess, the mosquitoes cannot reach the water surface to lay their eggs.  I also believe that if you pour a cupful of cheap oil on top of the water, the larvae will not be able to breath and will consequently quickly die.

Giving a Rose as a Gift

Many of us like to give a rose as a gift, especially for special occasions like a special birthday or a wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately, because we lack access to good advice, we often end up giving roses that are not too special and end up be dead or discarded after a few years.

The following is a list of five roses that will delight the recipient for many many years.  They are five roses that were awarded a BEST BUY accolade by an independent gardening test laboratory.

The first one is "Celebration Time" and is good for small gardens.  You can see from the image on the right just how abundant the flowers are.  Bees also love them and it flowers from July to September. It was also black-spot free for almost the entire summer.  height 75cm x spread 80cm.  Available from Eastcroft Roses.

Next up is "Let's Celebrate" which is long flowering.  This is a personal favourite: it has a gentle perfume, is covered in blooms which start deep-pink and fade gentle to a light girly pink  It is also largely blackspot free.  It flowers from July to September and grows to 100cm height x 110 cm spread.  It is available from Fryer's Roses

"Many Happy Returns" is next on the list.  Its pink flowers go well with its grey/green foliage.  It is an ideal patio pot rose.  It is exceptionally long flowering: June to September, but only grow to 65cm height x 90cm spread.  This one does suffer from some small amount of blackspot late summer.  On the plus side it had a gentle perfume and attracted bees.  It is available from Peter Beales Roses.

Next up is "Mum in a Million".  This one has a lovely scent and flowers from June to August.  Again this one does have a little blackspot towards the end of the season.  It grows to 85cm height x 85cm spread.  A real bonus is that it has a delicious perfume.  It is also available from Peter Beales Roses

Finally "Champagne Moment".  This one has a shorter flowering period but looks fantastic while it last.  No blackspot but did have a spot of mildew.  100cm height x 80cm spread.  It is available from David Austin Roses.

Runner Beans

When the weather is hot and dry, runner beans can struggle to set their flowers.  Water well twice a week and mulching will also help.  Don't use pesticides during the day, as the last thing you want to do is kill the pollinating insects.

Next year, try a French bean/runner bean cross.  An independent gardening laboratory suggest that "Moonlight" has less problems when it comes to setting.

Trim Evergreen Hedges.

Yew, privet, Lonicero nitida and box all benefit from a trim in early summer to keep them in shape.

Use shears on smaller hedges and hedge trimmers on larger hedges.

If you don't own an electric edge trimmer but are contemplating buying on, I can tell you that an independent test laboratory recommend the following five machines:

Black & Decker 1850L
Black & Decker GTC3655L
Bosch AHS  52 ACCU
Bosch AHS 54-20Li
Bosch AHS 52 Li