A must for each garden
	10:28am Thu 6 Mar 08
	VAL BOURNE says now is the time to plant the very valuable rhubarb Many years ago, in a lowly research post, I worked on rhubarb, a valuable crop if forced into early growth. The stems are rose-pink, the foliage crinkly yellow and, when it's cooked, it's an ambrosial food quite unlike the garden-grown, acidic rhubarb that appears later.

	Salute to the potato
	11:11am Thu 28 Feb 08
	VAL BOURNE celebrates the vegetable's world importance 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. The serious message behind the campaign is that the potato can play a huge part in alleviating world hunger and poverty. The potato started life in the high Andes of South America, where it was harvested for 8,000 years. In the 16th century the Spanish introduced them into Europe and now it is the fourth most important food crop in the world. China is the world's biggest producer and almost a third of the world's crop is grown in China and India.

	Bees do need your help
	1:01pm Thu 21 Feb 08
	Gardeners can come to the aid of threatened species, says VAL BOURNE By now you will almost certainly have seen your first bumble bee and it's likely to have been a large Bombus terrestris. These short-tongued, buff-tailed bumble bees are often seen feeding on saucer-shaped flowers like hellebores, or on crocus, or winter aconite, or early-flowering pulmonarias.

	Life still in Cogges
	11:34am Thu 14 Feb 08
	VAL BOURNE praises an old county friend and the newest trend The best news at the start of 2008 is that the Cogges Farm Museum in Witney has survived after another scare. Set near the heart of the town and funded by the Oxfordshire County Council, it is a tremendous resource.

	Whiter shade of pale
	11:35am Thu 7 Feb 08
	Val Bourne has been looking for the early signs of spring I'm heartened by the fact that we are already over halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The days are getting longer and there's a touch of warmth in the sun to bring out those three heralds of spring - the crocus, snowdrop and winter aconite. Only yesterday I passed a steeply sloping cottage garden displaying hundreds of pure-white snowdrops. They were show stoppers on that frosty winter's morning and they have probably been there for a hundred years or more.

	Doughty performers
	10:50am Thu 24 Jan 08
	VAL BOURNE relies on the flavour and nutrition of the hardy kale When I was gardening on Britain's equivalent of the Russian steppes - on the higher reaches of Northamptonshire - the greenhouse windows were so ice-patterned in the mornings that they could have been the backdrop for a scene from Doctor Zchivago.

Which witch hazel's best?

11:15am Thursday 17th January 2008

VAL BOURNE was put off them for years, but eventually gave tham a go January is the month to buy witch hazels and I have just been on my annual hunt to find a good one. But I don't identify the best ones by the way they look, I smell them instead. The one photographed here is sweet and spicy (even on cool windy days) and the flowers veer between pink and orange, reminding me of shot silk. But you can also get cool primrose yellow, sunshine yellow and orange through to deep cherry red. I'll be planting my new acquisition among hellebores, snowdrops, ferns and miniature bulbs. Once established I shall expect it to produce flowers every January - when very few shrubs flower.

	Keep an eye on Mother Nature
	9:58am Thu 10 Jan 08
	VAL BOURNE explores the reasons behind some popular gardening myths I am in a state of high excitement because my seeds have arrived and every now and then I go and give my colourful packets a quick rustle. I know that within ten weeks or so I will be sowing hundreds of different things under glass.

	The best for the house
	10:01am Thu 3 Jan 08
	VAL BOURNE praises the adaptable and colourful hyacinth A couple of weeks ago, I bought one blue hyacinth in a plastic pot for the princely sum of 75p and plonked it on the kitchen windowsill. Now the mid-blue flowers look spring-fresh and they are scenting the entire room.

	Lift spirits in winter
	9:16am Thu 27 Dec 07
	VAL BOURNE suggests a box of colour to brighten dark evenings In recent weeks I have been compiling a diary and garden planner for a well-known homes and gardens magazine. One of my many and varied tasks was to ask well-respected and famous gardeners for monthly tips. One winter suggestion from Wolfgang Bopp, the curator of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, (01794 368787) near Winchester, shone out for me.

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