Year before last, we bought several bag of general purpose compost from B & Q and it was dreadful stuff. Nothing thrived in it and little survived. Healthy seedlings transplanted into it turned yellow and wilted within a very short time and we had to re-sow everything. Needless to say, we haven...

Johnboy wrote:I apologize because my previous post should have been addressed to Westi and not Caz. I plead mild insanity
JB.

Only mild?!

Hope you both have a wonderful day.

Hi Geoff Sorry, but I'll have to take issue with you on that. I'm self employed, and believe me, there are many like me who live on incomes that are way below those of people living entirely on benefits! Many of us have very irregular income and if we don't work, we don't get paid - no paid holiday...

Hi Primrose,

I'd be very interested in your results so keep us posted.

Smurfy

I rang the hotline for pig flu but they were no help as i all i got was crackling

I get sick and tired of programs where you don't know if it's supposed to be gardening or DIY/Building. That's proabbly because they're now made with the digital (and profit making) chanels in mind and if they have an element of building then they can be shown on the gardening and the building chan...

Smurfy - If you have Japanese knotweed you have my sympathies - as far as I am aware it is a notifiable disease and care needs to be taken when disposing of any that you dig up. I'm going to keep an eye on it as i only looked at a couple of the leaves. I'll wait until it flowers as i think that wil...

Yeah that is a bit of a headache. I am currently filling some new raised beds so to gradually fill them with used compost and then buy new in next year. It is an expense though. if anyone has any good ideas i'd be glad to hear them. My other half who doesn't understand gardening suggested growing th...

You'll get some cracking potatoes. i tried potatoes in bags last year and although i had to harvest them earlier than normal because of the blight i still had a very respectable crop.

Our local bats were out last week too. I haven't seen them yet this weekend though.

I have a question about Swine Flu. When does a disease or virus become a pandemic, what are the criteria for it?

I agree that there have not been many cases but yet the news keeps mentioning that it's a pandemic. If it's just sheer weight of numbers then surely acne or chicken pox is a pandemic too?

Oh Elaine, i'm so sorry. It's a hard decision to make but i think you are right about the quality of life if she was to be in permanent pain that in my opinion is crueler to keep her alive even though it gives you such heart ache.

I will be thinking of you both and give Tibby a squeeze from me.

I try to steer totally clear of the sensationalist media, but I do rely on such as the BBC for factual information. But even they seem to have much the same sensationalist approach to the situation. Radio 4 all the way, all though they do occasionally have a guest who dramatises the whole thing mos...

Thanks primrose. You're right she's not keen on the vacuum but she deals with it - funnily enough its sneezes which she really doesn't like and she runs a mile when one of us sneezes.