THE recent spell of slightly-more-than-damp weather may not have been particularly conducive to leisurely horticultural pottering sessions, and it might have encouraged a nationwide epidemic of blight, but one thing is for sure, it has created some scary monsters in the gardening.

My monsters came two-fold. I have only been working on my new garden since March this year. It's coming on well, and has put on a good display of colour over the summer. I did cheat a little though.

I have always been an exponent of perennials, simply because I see them as a long-term investment. You can grow or buy them, stick them in the soil and then do very little with them for the next ten to 20 years, whereas annuals need to be intensively propagated or bought in and planted out every year.

Moving house is quite a busy and expensive time, and in spring, plant prices are high in the shops because of the excitement and expectation of a new season. I managed to fill some of my borders with cuttings, split clumps and housewarming gifts, but there were one or two gaps left which needed filling, and the quickest way to achieve this was to plug the holes with fast-growing annuals.

I chose nasturtiums. I had a few of the common orange flowered ones, some of the simple yellow and just a few of the deep red ones. I planted them at decent intervals. For most of the summer they have given a dazzling display of hot, vibrant colour.

The wet weather that we have had over the past few weeks kept me indoors. I cowardly chose to get on with the indoor decorating jobs that I had put off for longer than I should have. Eventually the sun came back out. The flowers turned their heads up towards the sky and the butterflies fluttered amongst the foliage. It was time to step out into the garden again.

That's when I found the first of the two monsters. The nasturtiums must have thrived on the humidity and had completely taken over the borders. There were orange trumpets everywhere, green tendrils clambering through delicate petals and the unique pungent aroma filling the air. The red and yellow plants had remained quite compact and controlled, but the orange ones had really run a happy riot.

I made a mental note to put nasturtium removal top of the horticultural 'to do' list for the next day. However, when I emerged the following morning, armed with secateurs, pruning knife and a roll of black bin bags, I was stopped in my tracks. The nasturtium volume had diminished by half. All that was left was a forest of skeletal stalks sticking out from the shrubbery.

A closer inspection revealed my second garden monster. The butterflies that I had seen flying around the borders a little while ago weren't just making romantic pleasure trips, but were laying masses of eggs on the nasturtium leaves. The caterpillars that subsequently hatched had marched in wriggling synchronicity over every square inch of available nasturtium leaf.

They had done half the job for me. My work wasn't over, though. I didn't really want the caterpillars to munch their way through the rest of the plants, so I had to pull all the nasturtiums out of the ground, along with their many-legged co-habitants. I must confess to having to go and pull some long sleeved gloves on for this, as I am not over-fond of handling naked caterpillars.

I christened my newly-arrived wheelie bin with four black bin bags full of nasturtium stems and made sure that the lid was particularly well shut down (well, I didn't want the caterpillars to make their way out).

Having put the nasturtiums in to fill the gaps in the border, I have been left with even bigger holes all over the garden. The experience has re-fuelled my love of perennials and reinforced my disdain for annuals in the main borders. I shall have to visit the garden centres in a few weeks and source out some end of season bargains to put in the gaps left.

JOBS TO BE DONE THIS WEEK

AS soon as land becomes available in the vegetable plot plant out spring cabbage seedlings.

FEED rhubarb with a general feed in order to build up the crown. Unless you are after the seeds, don't let them flower, and cut the stem off early.

TIE up the ferny growth on Asparagus plants. They need to be kept straight and upright to store energy for next year's spears.

GARDENERS' QUESTIONS

BOB from Linthorpe in Middlesbrough has heard about companion planting, and has used lavender under his roses to eradicate greenfly, but he wants to know what particular plants could be used in the greenhouse to keep out the aphids.

FRENCH marigolds keep whitefly from new greenhouses, but will not drive resident ones away. Basil attracts greenfly away from tomatoes in a suicidal pact. Nicotiana does the same with whitefly, and the broad bean again sacrifices itself to red spider mite.

Any flowering plant will attract pollinators, but try and avoid bright yellow ones as they also get the eye of the small black beetles, which although not harmful, can be a hindrance.

Onions, garlic and chives are pungent and tend to drive off or confuse most aphids.

POST SCRIPT

Brigid presents 'Ask about Gardening' every Sunday on BBC Radio Cleveland from noon to 2pm. Questions can be e-mailed to brigidpress@hotmail.com