No garden should be without a bush. Why is it, then, that some gardeners have trouble growing it?

Daphne likes a well-drained soil with plenty of compost.

If soil is heavy, plenty of organic matter should be dug in to keep the roots moist, but not wet.

The pH should be a little on the acid side, but this is not as important as the position.

Morning sun and afternoon sun is what they like.

Don’t use artificial fertilisers on daphne. Some blood and bone is all right. Mulch the plant with compost or well-rotted manure.

This should be applied when the bush has finished flowering. Don’t apply any more until new growth has ripened and set its flower buds.

After flowering has finished, prune lightly to shape the bush, although picking of the flowers usually takes care of this.

Daphne bushes should be sheltered from wind, too. They will grow well in large tubs on a porch or veranda.

The plant can be propagated by taking cuttings in December or January from the current season’s growth. These are shoots which have grown since last winter and haven’t flowered.

They should be eight to 10 centimetres long. Cut them so that they have a heel of older wood attached.

Daphne cuttings can take quite a while to form roots, sometimes many months, so be patient.

Never underestimate the value of earthworms in your garden. If your soil is in good condition, organically rich and well-manured, there will be plenty of worms in it.

They appear magically in rich soil, but it’s not much use introducing worms to poor soil. They will decamp. 

The humble worm is extremely valuable in creating topsoil and maintaining soil fertility. 

Earthworm castings, or excrement, are far richer in minerals then the soil they ingest.

Worms burrow as far as two metres into the ground, letting oxygen and water in and keeping disease-producing bacteria that thrive only an environment without oxygen at bay.

The coming autumn could well be one where the combination of soil moisture, temperature and humidity is right for a good crop of field mushrooms.

While it is pretty easy to recognise the common edible field mushroom in open pastoral land, it should be remembered that there are varieties that are poisonous.

It’s a rather fine line between poisonous and edible mushrooms.

Some people believe that a mushroom is edible if it peels easily, if it smells like a mushroom, if it does not blacken a silver spoon used to stir it while cooking, it does not coagulate milk, or if insects, slugs or other creatures are seen eating it. But experts say that these tests are worthless.

For instance, the most poisonous of all mushrooms, amanita verna, passes most of them and tastes quite pleasant.

It has no apparent effect on its victims until six to 18 hours after it has been eaten, by which time it is too late for first aid.

But don’t let this put you off the common field mushroom.

The horseradish is a perennial herb of the mustard and cress family.

The parsnip-like, fleshy taproot gives rise to many lateral shoots.

It needs a deep, moist, fertile loam so plant root cuttings in winter or spring in well-dug soil.

It also does best in a cool, moist position and should be watered frequently.

The plants are best treated as annuals, the roots being lifted each year, stored and replanted.

Like comfrey, horseradish is very hardy and persistent, and if left unchecked, can spread and become a pest.