My dear friends of yesteryear. I do apologise for not replying before now but on my birthday we had a rarther awkward day with my partner being readmitted into hospital. She has recently had a rather major operation and there seemed to be some complication but I am pleased to say that it was because...

Dear alan As usual I am late with everything but i wish you a belated happy birthday and hope that yesterday you had a great time. Do you realise that just on the forum we have been twenty years plus all the previous forums and you have served this forum admirably and there are now only a few of us ...

Well three years ago we had 18 pairs of Swallows in the stable and barn and we think the number of young produced was in excess of fifty and since then the next year we got none and saw two Swallows on the power line last year which moved on and to date I have not seen a Swallow, Swift or House Mart...

The HDRA through Lawrence Hill put out first Bocking 4 which can be quite invasive and best cut before any seeding can take place then Bocking 14 which doesn't seed in UK and what you grow is what you get. I have been using Comfrey for over fifty years and there are many different varieties of Comfr...

Dear John, If lettuce seed are subjected to high temperatures germination locks up. I had this several years ago and I posted on the forum about it. I planted an 80ft x 30ft tunnel with 6 benches of trays of 216 and in the second week in February I had just finished sowing and the afternoon was beau...

Dear Diane, Thank you for my birthday picture ! It just shows how more advanced you are down where you live as apposed to here when we have Daffodils still to bloom. Yet we have done a mass planting of brassicas and then had a panic because a frost was forcast and managed to cover with fleece and on...

Dear OH, Although I went down to read only I read almost every day and am happy that the forum which was my aim for many years was to get people interested in growing and assist those new to growing to get to understand what was needed. Because of my age and also my businesses and the Forum became t...

Dear Westi,
I wish you the happiest of days on your birthday and a letter will follow later.
JB.

Although I am now read only I simply couldn't miss the chance to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a person I always read.
Diane I hope you have had the best day ever.
Sincerely,
JB.

Dear Stephen,
the purple flower with the berries is in fact Woody Nightshade and will have red berries. The lower on Deadly Nightshade is a bell flower of a much deeper coloured purple. I am afraid that without the leaf pattern showing I cannot identify the othe seedhead.
Sincerely,

I note the table that Alan has kindly provided but what must be understood is that the four named mentioned outlets are from seed houses and university horticultural establishments who store their seeds strictly to the recognised temperature of 5C now I wonder how many Gardeners and allotmenteers st...

Dear Geoff,
Just to put you right I started growing vegetables on my own account in 1943 and I will leave the maths to you!
Sincerely,

My dear old friends, I thank you so much for remembering me on my birthday. Due to a very strong antibiotic I am taking it was the first alcohol birthday since I was 16 and I celebrated by going and having a wonderful steak cooked to perfection rare to medium! Some time back I said that due to famil...

Dear Diane, May I suggest rather than ruining your nails trying to rub peas on sand paper that you take a sharp knife and holding said pea under fingernail with a smidgen of pea protruding you slide the knife down your fingernail and cut the skin. The cut should be the opposite side to the scar on t...

Hi Westie,
Is this called celebrating with conviction! Enjoy your day.