Thanks for all your replies I shall look up all those plants mentioned and the links provided. The winters here in the UK I'd say are pretty mild, it doesn't snow but can get cold and windy where I am. My garden is very shaded by trees although once the leaves fall of the trees I should get more light. I have a very ugly wall in my garden which I've been thinking about growing some passion fruit plants to cover it but that will be in spring time.
I've noticed I have very good soil in my garden I've been doing an experiment with some seeds. I dug up some soil from my garden for some indoor pot plants and the seeds seem to grow a lot better in the soil from my garden than the potting compost I bought on ebay
