Thank you ladies for your replies and photos. All very helpful. I have made a note of all the varieties mentioned for future reference. The area hasn't been cleared yet and there is some construction work to do before I can consider planting - hopefully next year.

Diane.

Hi Mouse, I got my green manure seed online from m. I found their site helpful with quantities etc and it didn't seem too expensive but this was my first experience buying seed like this so there may be better ones out there. Example - 25g crimson clover which they say will cover 15 sq metres was £1...

I will soon hopefully have the ideal south facing wall on which to grow a grapevine or two. Has anyone any experience of the seedless varieties "Lakemont ' and 'Flame' ? They seem to be recommended, in the catalogues, as well flavoured dessert grapes for outdoor growing but there is nothing lik...

Thanks for the compliments but I'm afraid I can't take credit for the photograph; it was taken by my husband. As I was writing this we had two young woodpeckers at the feeders. It was a very close shave for one of them - as I was watching, a sparrowhawk came through and took one of them. I dashed ou...

Great spotted woodpeckers are regulars at our feeders all the year round. At present we have at least two families. The feeders are quite close to the house so it was a lovely sight to see the parents (usually dad) feeding the youngsters.

Diane.

As well as making a decisions regarding the type of power we generate we need to consider how this power will be distributed. This seems to be ignored by many when advocating the installation of 'so called' green technologies. The current plans to build large windfarms (an additional 600 turbines) i...

My tip would be that it is never too late to start. We did not have the opportunity to garden very much when we lived in London as we had a tiny back yard. We moved from there to rural Wales and 3.5 acres when we retired. Our friends thought we were mad to take it on but we love it and it is us that...

My OH used to work in a cola canning and bottling plant. He says that if you saw what it did to the machinery you would never drink it again! He did find another good use for it though. On one occasion an electrical fault caused a small fire under a machine he was fixing and not having an extinguish...

As you say NB, two wrongs don't make a right. As far as possible I do use peat free compost but round here it isn't always available and, as others have done, I have also found the quality variable. I do use my own compost wherever it is suitable. I have not yet written to DEFRA or to Garden Organic...

I use Showa Thermo 451 as a general purpose glove. They are washable and the rubberised palm and finger coating give a good grip. I have use these for bricklaying and heavy work as well as gardening and they have lasted a reasonable time. For really heavy duty work and for dealing with brambles and ...

Warning - controversial question follows!

Why is it not OK for gardeners/horticulturalists to use peat but it is OK for the Government to allow and even to actively encourage the replacement of vast quantities of upland peat with concrete to support wind turbines?

Just asking!

The responses to my 'bit of bother' has generated some very interesting reading. Thanks folks. Time for some experiments I think. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

Diane

Hi Alan, I'm sorry too I'm afraid my Welsh is limited to the National Anthem and Calon Lan. Thanks for the link, it is much as I thought. Do you still grow onions etc anyway? Hi NB, it certainly couldn't hurt to grow the caliente mustard anyway. I'm sure the ground would benefit as these beds were d...

Hello NB. I do grow all my vegetables in raised beds although they do have wooden frames unlike yours. I grow from sets planted in the spring as the ground can get waterlogged overwinter. I am very close to the river with a very high water table and once the ditches get full there is nowhere for it ...

I think I am going to have to give up on growing onions and garlic This is the second year running that I have lost most of my crop to white rot in spite of growing in a completely a different part of the plot, as far as possible from last year. I carefully destroyed all of the infected plants last ...