My broad beans are flowering profusely as of this week, but I am a long way south ! I gave up planting in autumn as it was too much trouble keeping them upright even in a walled garden the wind would wreak havoc, so this year I raised a square metre with lots of compost for good drainage, and plante...

Well there you all are now, it's over and done ! For my part, from 12000 miles away, CONGRATULATIONS ! We LOVED our Sydney Games, and hope you all loved your London ones. It isn't just about any one part, any one medal, any one person, it's about all joining in and creating something bigger than one...

Since my comfrey established enough that I could harvest it and make a solution/spray, I have used it on my brassicas with huge success, and I reckon it's the awful smell that deters the cabbage butterfly. I also use it on carrots when thinning, but I don't know if I ever have had carrot fly. I also...

lol Shallotman, I'm the Sheila, and I chuck the Kiwi bloke out early in the morning! We met in the USA, and I had 3 yrs living in the UK before that ! Mum, a nurse, passed away now, lived in Hanwell, Ealing until after WW11. Her garden led down to the Brent, and her Dad was a keen gardener being a v...

Currently sending better half off to work at 4am with a flat bread and large mug of split pea (sometimes with ham) or lentil (sometimes tomato/spicy) soup, I make a batch on the crock-pot on a Sunday night. I myself have yoghurt and a banana. We save the "full english" for Sunday mornings ...

God said: "Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milk-weeds and stuff I started eons ago? “I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand droug...

Hi Peter, Yes I do believe that Albury was named after an English village in Kent, which it "resembled" !! My imagination is not quite good enough to picture this comparison from 1839 - ish ! We do have a lovely botanical garden dating from 1887, isn't Kent renown for gardens? My positive ...

Hi westi, glallotments, alan r, vpm , et al. I am in Albury, almost halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. My district is cool/mountain - one hour to skiing from here. But the last two years we had rain after ten years of drought. Now they forecast another El Nino ( = drought) and we might get anothe...

Well thank you VPM, I am chuffed that my avatar piccy came up,
I did done good. No holding me back now!

My local weather station has 7 degrees, today ranged from 6 to 9 , yesterday 1 to 15 , with an inch of rain in last 24 hours, typical winter here in my part of Oz ! I seriously sympathize with your summer, I expect it will cheer up for the Olympics. My positive things are that hubby is going to buil...

Hello everyone. I'm new, and want to join in if I may, bit by bit. You are not alone re dairying being a stressed industry, our duopoly of supermarkets here in Australia are also squeezing our dairy farmers at the moment due to price wars, not good. This is my first post ever so I hope it turns out !