Hi Monika, last year my earliest sowing of peppers were 'skinny' so I potted mine up deeply with no ill effects and they went on to become very sturdy plants and cropped very well. I have done the same this year, so fingers crossed all will be well. Hope this helps.

Diane.

Hi Viola and PP. I used New Horizon peat free compost exclusively in 2010 and had a very severe infestation of aphids on my peppers which were raised in the conservatory. Last year I used a reduced peat compost (only because I couldn't get hold of peat free locally) and there was not an aphid to be ...

PP, I had to add the swans as extras but I did include them in the end. It was a beautiful sight - two adults and four late brood cygnets from last year in the stunning sunrise. Shame I didn't have the camera. How lovely to see that large number of redpolls, such pretty little birds. We normally see...

I had 17 species too, unless I'm allowed to count the swans and mallard on the river which is technically part of my garden. My numbers were not high either - the biggest being 10 blackbirds. Its a great shame I couldn't count the 30+ fieldfares that were stripping the crab apple yesterday, only 2 t...

Hi Primrose. The two varieties I grow are 'Elan' and 'Mara de Bois' both of which have a lovely flavour. The 'Mara de Bois' has smaller fruit than the 'Elan'. 'Elan' plants are very vigorous and also very heavier croppers (for me). They are the childrens' favourite. I havn't seen them in any of the ...

I think it is probably a combination of all the things mentioned plus the fact that we have new neighbours who, I discovered yesterday, have started putting out food too. The previous people didn't put out bird food as they rescued cats (they had about 25 most of the time). Thankfully they all went ...

We had a few visitors later on today but not nearly as many as usual. Maybe it is the milder weather as PP suggests. We also normally have a regular visit from a sparrowhawk that thinks it is invisible if it hides in the cryptomeria, the other birds know it is there though. The redpolls and siskins ...

Up until a couple of days ago our garden was teaming with birds of all sizes, all feasting happily on the hedgerow fruit and foraging for seeds and insects and there were hoards on the feeders too. But today, as I look out, there are none to be seen bar a couple of pigeons and a magpie and even they...

Far less activity here too. I think they must have given up struggling through the hard baked clay Can't say that I am missing them too much although mole hills are useful for mixing with the compost.

We very often don't get the rain predicted for the area as it seems to be deflected by the hills but we are certainly getting the high winds today. I would say that xc weather is pretty accurate for where we are - difficult to walk against the wind today and the roof slates are rattling - kept me aw...

Hi Colin, mine is about 20' x 12' which is really reduced to about 20' x 9' of usable space because of the curved sides and I have no idea of the make. I have plastic doors each end plus mesh doors inside so we can leave the plastic doors open to get ventilation but keep out our neighbours' cats (23...

Hi Colin, I'm not an expert on polytunnel growing but I inherited one when I moved here. The only thing I would say on choosing a tunnel would be to go for one with straight sides. The one I have has curved sides which really reduces the growing space.

Regards, Diane

Happy Birthday from me too NB, and may there be many more!

Regards, Diane

Thanks for that idea NB, will give it a try if any come back next year. We do have a number of magpies and it would deter any predators of the furry kind too! As our next door neighbour has a lot of cats we can't rule them out as they could quite easily scale the barn timbers.

Diane.

For the first time since we moved here we had a pair of swallows nest in our barn. They had a brood of 4-5 chicks but something dislodged the nest and we found only one youngster surviving which thankfully fledged the day after. They then set to and built another nest and this time there were 3 poss...