Thanks for that. I will go and have a look at what B&Q has to offer, and then think on it till next Wednesday when I will get it cheaper, if they have something suitable.
Gwen (real name Sheila!)

I bought a watermelon, and just for fun, put some of the seeds in compost on a windowsill propagator with heat underneath. The seeds have, amazingly, germinated. Assuming they go on to produce plants, and that I have the patience to look after them, what do I do next? Has anyone ever grown watermelo...

The considered opinion of folks on our plots is that you just keep pulling it up when ypu see it and eventually it gets down to manageable proportions, without resorting to weedkiller. Dried marestail does have herbal uses, of course. If you dig in March you can find and remove the spore producing m...

I have several very large wormwood plants which have to be cut down later in the year. One year I just put them over the potato rows where I had cut off the tops of blighted potatoes because I was too lazy to do anything else at the time. One row of potatoes didn't get any, and I found that that row...

Thanks both. I have a line of gooseberry bushes along the side of my allotment (seventeen different varieties!), and just want to keep down the vegetation, mainly grass, which grows up between them, so a strimmer which goes for an hour would be fine, even if it were to take two charges to do it. Sno...

I have read the comments about strimmers in general, but does anyone have any recent experience with rechargeable battery strimmers. Thanks.

Apart from the mini plastic things, I bought a Solar Tunnel, which if you can afford it is a very good buy. More complicated to put up, but more stable when it is done. Big curly anchoring whatsits in the corners, and the top cover has its ends threaded on metal rods so there is no digging into soil.

The shelves from the plastic mini greenhouses are excellent for laying loosely over newly sown seeds to keep cats from using the area as a toilet. So when the rest of the set-up dies, keep the shelves! I bought a plastic grenhouse with a cover which had green plastic mesh reinforcing lines, and the ...

I make a coleslaw with Brussels sprouts, leeks and carrots, and it works best if you have a fine slicer on a food processor. I use equal quantities by weight of sliced sprouts and leeks, and grated carrots, and then add the dressing.

In the Olden Days, not that long ago, the outside one hole privvy was situated so thet the family pig could avail itself of any protein left in the human excrement. How about molluscs? I read somewhere that one could pack slugs in salt to rid them of their slime, and then presumably after some proce...

Good idea. Tip: bind some pieces of thin cane with string, onto all four sides at the top to make them last longer.

Cuisse de Poulet means Chicken Thigh - typical British reserve to name them Banana! At a certain time of year Aldi seem to get them in. They are a lovely sweet 'onion'.

Geoff mentions the Cuisse de Poulet, Zebrune, or banana shallot, which I have grown from seed, and really enjoy. Correct me if I am wrong, but this shallot is just an onion of a different shape - yes? When planted, the mature bulb does not form daughter bulbs like a 'real' shallot, it just goes to s...

Anyone remember when Chinese restaurants first arrived here, and the big scandal then was cat food in the meals? We were in China a few years ago on the occasion of the solar eclipse, and though we never questioned the contents of the food, we did have some concern over basic food hygiene, especiall...

Our local council's parks and gardens departmentl sells bags of the compost which is used in the plant nursery, at a very reasonable price too. I have never tried it, but maybe I should! Not this year though as I have bought my compost. The council has for gthe last two years taken large containers ...