Thanks for your replies Sally and PP. You have both made points that I had thought of, but I was a bit in denial, I think! Its good that you have confirmed these points. I cannot vent the hood to outside unfortunately because of the position of the cooker. So a new recirculating hood is in order I s...

Anyone know much about these? We took ours down to put new tiles up (they look lovely) and we rather like the look of the kitchen without it. We hadn't used it for ages because it was so noisy and didn't seem to work that well (it does need a new filter). Any point in putting it back up? Anyone else...

Thanks PP and Monika, I have my eye on a likely corner, now its just the small matter of finding time to do it all!

I love this time of year, but its going to get hectic

We have a square raised pond which we inherited with the house, along with several big koi and various other fish. Unfortunately the pond has developed a leak so we have decided to give the fish to our willing neighbour and demolish it as we are limited for space and can put it to better use. I woul...

Thanks Sally. I was trying to think of cheap ways (recycling) to connect hoses, then I thought why not just loop hose where I want it to go? Much simpler! Your post has confirmed that this is a better idea. All I need now is the time to go and do it! Although the water at the allotment doesn't get t...

Last summer I watered the tunnel by dropping the hose into the water butt, making sure the end was at the bottom, and allowing the water to siphon out. I then had to move the hose every so often, but it freed me up to do other stuff at the same time. My idea is to do a slightly more efficient versio...

Peter and Monika.

Our allotment is the end one, with a field over the hedge. The prevailing wind blows all the bits and pieces off everyone elses plots into our hedgerow. We retrieve it all every so often and leave it to be claimed. Which it isn't always, we've had some good stuff by this method

Cold here too. Lovely day though, sunny and bracing. We had a productive day on the allotment. My Fine Young Man built a removeable cold frame inside the tunnel. The plan is to acclimatise the chilis, peppers and aubergines in there as early as feasible. We will not have space in the conservatory as...

Hello everyone I am thinking up ideas for keeping the tunnel watered this season. Last year we had two water butts which we kept topped up and watered with a can. It worked well, but we are both working, so sometimes it got left a bit too long. At the end of the season (when the taps get turned off ...

Bert, thats lovely, it always makes me very happy when people appreciate our produce as much as we do. I am feeling the tingling. But I have two weeks leave soon and have decided to make good use of the time by tiling the kitchen (have been wanting new tiles for the last 6 years). So I'm hoping for ...

I'm the same as Beryl. Anything sown a bit later will usually catch up anyway.

That was my point really. Success from doing everything wrong

You seem on the right wave-length to me, Westi A work colleague of mine is also a good friend, and we spend most of our time talking about food and gardening. In that order. I think its a pity that womens talk is so often thought to be nothing but clothes, hair, men, etc and on a very trivial level....

Have done all you advise, Monika, (multi-tasking; making marmalade and painting skirting boards.. .) and also boiled until very dark in colour and punchy in flavour , so it ought to set...still quite a few jars left from last year, so won't need to make any next year.

Regarding the non-setting issue, I used to have this problem if I followed the recipe. But I always cook the marmalade for far too long, because we actually like dark, thick and very very orangey. It would'nt win prizes at the produce show, though, too unconventional. And it doesn't completely set. ...