Is there an "Apple Day" held somewhere near you, Malk? RHS gardens and many other gardens hold them at this time of the year and fruit experts might be able to tell you what variety it is. Or maybe a professional fruit grower at a nursery?

Sounds an absolutely ideal site, Peter, particularly with the addition of toilets. Our mini site (just 8 plots) only fulfills one of your ten criteria (the water tub for the whole site, although we have only had that for two years), the remainder are just a dream. As well as the native hedge, I woul...

It wasn't their "cuddliness" which put me off eating our rabbits, snooky, but the fact that I had cleaned their hutches, seen their babies born, picked juicy dandelion leaves for them and now I was expected to eat them - almost like eating your own relatives! I am not at all fussy about ea...

I am not sure I could eat an animal I have looked after! We kept rabbits during the war to supplement our meagre rations and I could never eat them when they were killed. In fact, it still turns my stomach to smell cooked rabbits now, more than 60 years on! Funny that I never feel like that about th...

We don't have a polytunnel but do have a greenhouse and when we first got that, being dead keen, sowed and planted all kind of veggies, as recommended for growing "under cover" in winter. They didn't die, but I can't say they thrived either. Although the greenhouse is in an open area, not ...

You wear socks, OH? I always envisaged you as a true country yokel, sockless wellies in winter, sockless sandals in summer.

Elaine, we had a similar magic experience at Spurn Point once: there had been a heavy sea fret with a light north-easterly wind all night (in mid-October) and when we arrived there in mid-morning, all the bushes, particularly the sea buckthorn, were alive with birds, including hundreds of fieldfares...

Immediately written to our MP to ask him to ask him to support these motions. Maybe there is still a chance that the licence can be stopped.

I pull ours up, Fred, green or no green, and then put them into the unheated greenhouse to dry. The foliage soon goes limp and dries up and that's the time when I cut it off and put the onions, stalk end facing down, on the slats of the greenhouse benches until they are completely dry. Over winter t...

What a grand Indian summer we are enjoying! I do hope most (or all?) of you have been having this wonderful weather, too. The last few days, our michaelmas daisies have been covered with small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, painted lady, comma and speckled wood butterflies and the occasional s...

Elle's Garden, I am sure you will greatly enjoy your greenhouse. We bought a 6'x4' Alton greenhouse more than 30 years ago. It's moved twice with us, was extensively repaired last year (after we toyed with replacing it altogether) and has given me hours and hours of pleasure over the years and, most...

Many thanks, glallotments, for all your hard work. I have read DOW Agrochemicals' press release and the details of the stewardship (APs only to be used on pastures for grazing and not meadows for mowing), but one thing that still worries me as a gardener who has been affected: Picture the scene - co...

Our shredder (of Stephen's type) has just reduced ten thick, tall sunflower stems to lovely, compostable material. In the past, we found that these stems stayed unrotted in the compost for years and had to be repeatedly re-recycled! Anything straight works beautifully through the machine, but avoid ...

We have grown the variety Montgomery the last two years and they have been excellent in growth, timing and taste. This year I sowed them in rootrainers on 10 April and planted them out mid-June. They are just starting to crop now and will most likely stand until about February/March. Did you plant y...

I like your poem, OH, particularly in view of time of day it was written on a SUNDAY morning! I agree that a bit of extra publicity in the magazine might help to get some more members. As I don't use the computer every day, by the time I see a topic, it's quite often "gone off the boil". S...