I wish I hadn't started the "Early Spring Bits and Bob" because the last few days have been rather wintry: very cold N/NE wind, heavily overcast and even very occasional snowflakes ...... Just got to 6C so far today.

We had a similar problem with tools used on our local nature reserve some years ago. An assessor came from the insurance company to check them out and we then had to pay insurance (luckily, the Parish Council was responsible for it and paid it) before the tools could be used.

All the best, Westi!

Primrose, it's in the very latest one, March 2021, in a letter on page 132 ('Grafted Winter Beauty'). There is also an article about daphne in general on page 137. Hope that helps.

All the best, Robo, you really have got it rough at the moment! I had a rather unpleasant internal examination at our local hospital this morning, part of an ongoing problem, but everybody was very professional and kind and it's so odd with all the gowns, masks, social distancing etc, but needs must...

I am with you there, retropants. Take me to a nursery or garden centre and you have to tie my hands down before I buy the lot, then bring them home, divide them, take cuttings ....... But then, I hardly ever spend any money on clothes, still wearing some which I bought about 40 years ago and even so...

Sorry, OH, I couldn't resist, today being 1 March ..... I have just cleared all the plants out of the greenhouse and given it a thorough hoovering and then wash inside and out. It's wide open now to dry out and tonight I will fumigate it with a sulphur candle, ready for REAL action from now onwards....

I totally agree, Chantal! In the same vein, it always amazes when I see photos of expensive watches, thousands of pounds worth ..... You still only get 60 minutes in the hour and 24 hours in the day, which is exactly what my £9.99 watch gives me.

First frog spawn in the pond, narcissus Tete-a-tete and Ice Baby flowering, song thrush and blackbird singing - could almost be spring!
I took the large black plastic sheet off the vegetable beds, hoed the lovely crumbly soil and marked out the beds. Looking forward to the planting and sowing now.

Primrose, there is an actual article about daphne in the Magazine, but the idea about grafting is in a letter in the same issue.

Primrose and Geoff, re your daphne cuttings: there is a mention of the difficulty of taking daphne cuttings in the current RHS magazine and somebody writes that growing the vigorous spurge laurel Daphne laureola and then grafting other daphne pruning onto to is successful. Perhaps you could try that?

I have just read a very interesting article in the weekly Garden News magazine about the problems seed merchants and specialist societies are having at the moment with Brexit regulations kicking in. All plant and seed material has to be separately certified both for import and export. Societies like...

Oh, robo, hard luck. I hope it heals well and soon!

I have taken four different pills every morning for at least 20 years, one each of multivitamin (including vitamin D, of course), maximum strength cod-liver oil (which also includes vitamin D), garlic and probiotic. I have no idea if they have helped me in any way, but coming up to 84 now and still ...

Somehow, I can't really see the point of a machine like this. Unless you are making loads of pies and lots of the time, would it not be easier to do it by hand?