Companion planting, the gardening technique that carefully chooses and grows compatible plants with one another for their mutual benefit, is enjoying a revival. It began centuries ago in European cottage gardens but now can be found all over the world – in vegetable gardens, in flower borders, and in gardens that are delightful mixtures of all sorts of edible and ornamental plants growing happily together:...

Plants can give protection to one another in ways other than against the weather; they can provide physical protection, particularly against animals. After all, hedges were first used to keep livestock either in or out of a field or garden. One of the most effective animal proof hedges is of quick thorn, or hawthorn, (Crataegus rnonogyna). This forms a dense prickly hedge that does not need too much attention,...

One of the greatest challenges in gardening is the constant battle with the elements. In some places it is a question of modifying the existing climate by sheltering plants from the wind, providing shade or moisture; in others it is anticipating sudden swings from one temperature extreme to another. In one part of the country or another, there seems to be a constant stream of the “coldest winter,”...

Plants need protecting from adverse weather, particularly strong winds. Hedges are the most attractive way of providing shelter. A strip 4ft (1.2m) wide along the line of the hedge must be thoroughly prepared, preferably double-dug and incorporating plenty of organic material. Planting should be at any time between late fall and spring when weather allows. Distances between plants vary according to type but...

Soil can be enriched and conditioned in a number of ways. In the garden, doing it organically, with the use of live material (green manuring) and dead material (compost, manure), is safer to human health and in many cases less expensive than using inorganic, or chemical, fertilizers. Using certain crops as green manure has been practiced for generations. It involves growing a crop on idle land and then digging...