I have had the slugs eat nearly a whole Rhubarb leaf. I thought it was toxic to them! There are some superslugs and snails about this year. Hiope I don't meet one down a dark alley!

and of course you can plant some garlic in November!

I grew a second lot of broad beans that I sowed in April. They grew fine and flowered but very few of them made pods.
Any idea what could cause this? Cetainly can't be a lack of water!!

Mine were Offenham -Flower of Spring too. Perhaps the outer leaves are exceptionally tough in this variety? I going to let some heart up and see what the centres are like.

I can see how overcooking it will turn it into a mush but I can't see how it could make it tougher! After an hours cooking this stuff was almost as as tough as it was when I chopped it up . Perhaps I have grow a new type of cabbage that can replace leather in shoes!

Now this may seem like old hat and I am probably asking a ridiculously simple question but why is my cabbage tough? I picked a lovely Spring Green Cabbage yesterday, shredded the leaves after removing the stalks and boiled it for about an hour and it was as tough as old boots. Looking in the books i...

I have wireless temperature sensors in my cold greenhouse and outside at home. They give continous readings transmiited to my weatherstaion in the house . Over the years I would say the greenhouse at night gives 2-3 degrees protection from fost. In other words the temperature needs to be about -3 to...

I have just picked a lone cauliflower that I overwintered. It looked OK but when cooked went darkish coloured and was very bitter. Anyone know what went wrong?

Yes you do have to treat it with care (Im a clinical biochemist!) and certainly avoid dust inhalation or contact with the eyes. On our allotments we use it as an antislug device for potatoes. We are plagued with slugs on our clay soil and the allotmenteers have discovered that a liberal application ...

Well I must agree that sowing to early is not worth the risk. At most you gain a week or two and the worst case scenario is a total wipeout. Birmingham may be positively tropical compared to North East Scotland but last year we had a sharp frost in Mid May! Because I only put my early spuds om the a...

The Garden Centres seem to have their seed potatoes out on the shelves just after the New Year to persuade us Spring is round the corner. I am a bit skeptical of the value of chitting potatoes but I certainly wouldn't buy them too early. If you have a spell of wet weather and can't get at the plot y...

Actually there is nothing in the rule book that says you can't plant them all at once!. One Spring I couldn't get on the allotment until mid April becase it was drenched and flooded so I sowed them all at once! They grew OK

Well I planted thr strawberries today and compromised.I planted several runners from last year and bought a few early and late fruiting varieties from a nursery. Originally the mother plants from my runners were a mixture of late, mid and early varieties. Unfortunately when I palnted last years runn...

I have a bit of a dilemma! Last year I belatedly dug up a patch on my allotment in November (late I know!)and planted semi-established strawberry runners. They grew OK but produced very little fruit (which may in part be due to a wood pigeon invasion). The patch is now neglected and weed ridden. Sha...

I have grown sweetcorn for several years on my allotment but this year a problem has arisen that I have never seen before. Many of the cobs have had their outer leaves shredded to reveal the cob and all the corn has been completely removed from the exposed cob leaving the inner corn.In some cases th...