Behind the garden gate

REAL readers' gardens!

It’s time for sowing, planting alpine containers and living screens and tidying up old growth

As the long nights shorten, Mounton House garden quietly emerges from winter with delicate sprinklings of white narcissi, Scilla siberica and crocuses through the lawns. Daphnes fill the air with frag

HAVE you ever taken a close look at your soil? I mean, a really close look? And if not, why not? Soil, compost, dirt, earth – whatever you want to call it, it’s often overlooked, and yet it’s one of t

Sow courgette and squash seeds now so you’ll have seedlings ready to plant outside in early summer. Fill pots or large module trays with peat-free multi-purpose compost. Place one seed in each pot, ab

There are some vegetables that thrive in the cold, but unless you aspire to self-sufficiency Tom Coward recommends caution when sowing very early in the year. “It’s a mistake, although we always do it