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A few hundred years back, some quite serious wars were fought for control of the spice trade. At this time of year, one can see why. The crops available during an English winter are pretty bland, aren't they? And quite a lot of them taste of cabbage, which is not to...

Here we go: season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. You can always tell that autumn is coming, when people start quoting Keats.After a fairly spectacular summer, it is perhaps now time to start putting the garden to bed. Just before that... October is a good time to...

I seem to spend half my time at work repatriating rather confused bush crickets. That will be late summer, then. The apples are ripening on the trees, and it is time to decide what to do with them. Take them to Octoberfeast to be pressed for juice, or leave them as...

  In May you can sow, or plant out: beans, dwarf and runner: beet, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, and cauliflower: courgettes, cucumber, and kale: marrows, melons, parsnips, peas, pumpkins, radishes, spinach, spring onions, squash, sweetcorn, swiss...

You can plant almost anything in March, or you could, if the ground was not so depressingly wet. Walking on wet beds is not good for soil or carpets, and if the damp persists anything you have planted out might well rot. Raised beds, of course, are quick to warm and...

In a recent article on allotments, Julian Baggini says, "But let's not kid ourselves they reduce food miles or increase food security. The case for allotments is spiritual and psychological, not economic or environmental."  Don't you hate it when people confuse...

"Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret," says Horace. You can drive Nature out with a pitchfork, but she will always return. I don't know about you, but I am inclined to lend a respectful ear to a man who had the good sense to run away from the battle of...

April, then. Let us hope is is not as cold and dark as March has been. Keep some fleece handy, just in case. You can also use this to protect your carrots from root fly, though they are reasonably safe in raised beds or containers. Time to sow more peas, the last...

Scientists warned this month that we urgently need to transition to a green economy, because fossil fuel pollution risks pushing the Earth into a lasting and dangerous hothouse state. Even in Lewes we’ve experienced a heat wave, drought and flash flooding. It's...

Bertrand Russell said that when he talked to another philosopher, he felt that human happiness was no longer possible. When he talked to his gardener, he felt exactly the opposite. I bet he didn't talk to his gardener in December, when the poor fellow was hunched in...