A strange thing has happened to one of my over wintering pepper plants which I hard pruned last autumn and brought indoors to spend winter on the lounge windowsill. It flowered again and has produced more small peppers about 1.5 inches long, but all the peppers are actually bell shaped and now turni...

Good luck Marto and welcome to the forum. Sounds as if you've got a good few hours of slogging away ahead of you. Are you going to have any help with the allotment or is this going to be a solo effort? . The best advice I can give is not to allow yourself to feel overwhelmed and dispirited at the am...

Monika - I had a very good crop of the freebie Long Red Marconi peppers I grew last year in pots outdoors. Mine have just germinated in the airing cupboard. A pot I sowed nearly a month ago from quite old seed unusually failed to germinate. I usually find these seeds keep for several years. Strangel...

Just planted out a few double snowdrops I'd recently ordered. Also dug up a few stray naturalising crocus which have spread from the soil around a magnolia bush into the lawn where they would soon be chopped off by the mower, so have relocated them into a flower border. One clump had the tiniest lit...

My new dentist nearer home to whom I've recently transferred now charges an advance £30 deposit for each new appointment fixed. Its returnable on arrival, unless you haven't given them the statutory 24 hours notice of cancellation. Our GP surgery flashes up a screen showing missed appointments every...

This more a drinking than a culinary query. Have just opened a Rhubarb Gin gift from Christmas and tried drinking it neat on ice. Delicious but needs to be sipped slowly!! :lol: Very impressed with its subtle flavour. I have some nice rhubarb being currently forced under cover and wonder if anybody ...

I was thinking about the "uncalculated costs" of all these cancelled operations. Throughout the whole country there are not only the costs of aborted transport lifts to and from hospital where often relatives have taken time off work, but how on earth do you cost on any balance sheet the e...

Fingers crossed Tiger! . Does your Community run a Good Neighbour scheme with volunteers who will drive people to and from hoapital for just the cost of petrol? I imagine yiur GP surgery would have details if one operated near you. Obviously an inconvenience for your daughter if she has to take time...

It's interesting to note the speed at which snowdrops multiply. Two years ago I treated myself to four speciality snowdrops at a snowdrop park Open Day and specifically marked where they were planted so I could monitor their progress. Last year I had - just four snowdrops again. This year three of t...

One doesn,t know whether to be grateful or not that your medical issue is not deemed problematical because to the individual, if you're down for surgery it's obviously a problem. However I gather the more complicated surgeries are usually at the beginning of the operating list. When my husband had c...

I,ve found some clumps of very fine thin snowdrop leaves growing blind in a heavily dark shaded spot in my garden under a thick conifer. Am sure how old they are but they obviously haven't thrived even if they return every year. Can anybody tell me what are the chances of them blooming next year...o...

:o Mostly planning, a few pepper and chilli seeds sowing and watching daily for the slow but sure signs of better weather ahead with a few snowdrops peeping through, the cyclamen braving all the snow and frost directed and them and the first two crocus this morning opening their blooms. Keeping an e...

Tiger - that is awful. So disappointed for you. All this psyching yourself up and domestic preparation only to be let down at the last minute is horrible. I suppose its as a result of staff or bed shortages but that is no consolation. So hope you get recalled soon.

Alas my previous attempts in a sunny south facing border, as I have no greenhouse, were unsuccessful so I suspect a greenhouse is really essential. My best effort, lovingly nurtured on a matured patch produced one fruit slightly smaller than a tennis ball! So over to the experts........! Ironic thou...

I keep checking my chilli & pepper pots in the airing cupboard and nothing seems to be germinating yet. I know they,re slow starters and the seeds look thick skinned little perishers. Do you think they would benefit from being kick started by soaking on damp kitchen tissue first? Does anybody ge...