Last night's frost (-5C) killed off the nasturtiums, dahlias and pelargoniums, but the dug vegetable beds will have benefited from it! And it might have killed off a few bugs.

I think the RHS offers a soil analysis to members. Might be worth asking.

The allotments in our village were re-opened up 36 years ago as eight (large) full size plots. None of those remain at that size, they have all been halved or quartered. The system seems to work very well: the elderly can move to a smaller size when the work gets too hard, people busy with jobs and ...

Some 'compostable' wrappers actually state that they are made of rice starch - those I put into our own compost bin. Others, stated to be compostable, I put into the council garden rubbish bin because our own bin doesn't get hot enough to rot them down. I empty the tea bags after use: tea into the c...

Welcome, Carmen, I hope you will get answers to your questions and all the help you need! Is your new garden flat or on a slope? Which direction is it, N, S, E or W? If there is a slope, you might want to put in a pond in the lowest part to drain the water of the rest, before you do anything else. P...

You must have had it bad, Westi. I hope you get straightened out again quickly and the wind has abated.

I think we were in the eye of the storm because our barometer was at an extremely low level (968mb) and there has been virtually no wind at all the last three days.

I am probably quite perverse, but I actually like this time of the year (sorry, Primrose and OH). Autumn has always been my favourite time of the year...... as a child, probably because my birthday is in autumn and now, because I can devote my time to indoor crafts and reading without feeling guilty...

On pruning: you can chop a bay tree back quite hard but I would do that in late spring, not now. If you are sure it IS a bay (and not a decorative laurel which could be poisonous, both are Laurus ), I find the best way to preserve the leaves is to freeze them. Just give the picked leaves a wipe with...

Gosh, they look healthy, Elmigo. We had to pull up all our brassicas because the cabbage white caterpillars this year just turned all the leaves into lace. Next year, they will go under a netting tunnel.

Robo, even if the frost has killed the potato tops, you might still have some little spuds in the ground/pot! Don't dig them up until Christmas.

Just finished digging the vegetable patch other than the leek plot. Now hoping for some hard frost by January before the manure goes on.

The strange thing is that, when I have visited my youngest daughter in Bonn, all the children seem to walk to school there, primary as well as secondary or, if too far, use public transport. If you saw a child of, say, 8 years on his/her own on a bus or suburban train here, you would wonder if they ...

Some years ago, a huge pile of manure was my very best birthday present, Diane!!!

There was recently a discussion on our village Facebook page, parents complaining that on certain days there is no room on the minibus which takes the children to our nearest secondary schools. I joined in by saying that I made my children walk two miles to school when they were teenagers although t...

With only leeks and a few brassicas remaining on our small garden plot at the moment, now we longer have an allotment, I intend to clear it all, dig it over, get it nicely frosted, then spread the manure and cover it all with black plastic to let the worms do their job. But the indoor fun will be th...