One of the plants strongly associated with north-west Scotland is the heather, and Coll is no exception in having a good spread of it. People sometimes have difficulty sorting out the difference between heather and heath, but it's really quite easy - what we call Ling and the botanists call calluna vulgaris is heather and the other variations on Erica are heath. But, being Irish, the Irish heath is dabeocia, after Saint Dabeoc.

Calluna has always been a lot of things to a lot of people and, in the past, was used for thatching, sweeping floors and as fuel. The stems were woven into ropes and the roots were carved into knife handles - so those of you who cut your cheese with a dirk may be holding a heather handle. The flowering stems produce a strong yellow dye, can be used to make beer as well as tea, and you can stuff your mattress with the twigs. All this apart from the obvious attractions of heather for honey and food for game birds.

An area of calluna growing alongside other plants associated in the wild with them is called a calluneatum. and if you decide to cultivate one of your own, you'll need a weed-free garden site and soil that is slightly acid. (The quickest way to produce acid soil, once you've done your soil testing, is to apply some Flowers of Sulphur at the rate of about three ounces a square yard.) After this, apply peat to the surface by just raking it in. This produces soil conditions which will well and truly encourage the heather to grow fast.

You can get foliage and flower interest for most of the year by buying a range of the varieties that are just colour variations on the three species that are heavily represented on Coll: calluna vulgaris, erica cinerea (bell heather) and erica tetralix (cross-leafed heather). And, if you add to these varieties of erica carnea, (Alpine Heath) and erica vagans(Cornish Heath) that are not native to Coll, you'll have a very good mixture. Remember that practically all the varieties you can grow have been found in the wild, so keep your eyes open for some clumps of good colour during your country walks - but just take a cutting from a wild plant; don't take the spade to it!

When planting your calluneatum, put the different types in drifts and go for a planting density of about eight to the square yard. And it's handy to apply a thick peat mulch over the soil surface before planting so that you plant through a real weed barrier mulch. The beauty of all this is that the only maintenance you need, apart from occasional weeding, is to give the plants a hair-cut with shears every April from about two years after planting. This encourages growth and is simply a garden version of moor burning. And, if you really want to get the feel of sleeping in the heather, dry the prunings and stuff a pillow with them!