First serious frost of the year here last night. That will have put paid to my remaining brave dahlias, cosmos and other late splashes of colour in the garden. All downhill now ! Meanwhile our pair of regular visiting crows and the injured wood pigeon come early for their breakfast every morning. Fo...

Vivien. My idea of virtual gardening now I,m getting a bit creaky!
Will have to test and see how the "under gardener" feels about me squaffing his G&T behind his back !

Can,t really help much Westi but when we had a holiday home in the coast I would bring home occasional bagels of beach strewn seaweed for compost. Didn,t harvest the fresh growing stuff. I usually used to dig it straight into the soil and found it took quite a long time to compost down. However I,m ...

Monika, Yiu never cease to amaze me how you and your OH keep labouring away in your garden despite having given up your allotment. Well done! It,s surprising how much inysical effort some of these gardening chores take but I guess it,s all good exercise in the fresh air. Yes, mares tails to be avoid...

Like the sound of your recipe Civien. I would think the onky risk of curing off part of a head at a time would be the risk of damage or infection setting in to the rest of the area. I,ve currently got some nice little cabbages growing in a big tub as an experiment and am just picking off outside lea...

Surprising how even a brief spell of sunshine lifts the spirits, especially right now with the miserable time everybody is having. It,s drizzling here now but earlier we were able to lift some nice beetroots from the veg plot before the frost gets at them. When I start getting depressed at the rain ...

Yes, the guy we use brings everything including floor coverings. You might want to save some spare newspapers for additional protective floor coverings though. Create as much spare surface area in your kitchen as possible so that oven and grill doors etc, if detachable can be laid somewhere. Mid it,...

I,ve just eatena Persimmon.(Sharon Fruit) for my tea. A website tells me that they lower the density of alcohol in the blood so must lay in a stock for Christmas !!. They are apparently two type astringent and non astringent and they have rwther different appearances. I,ve only ever seen and bought ...

As long as you can harden them off property and store them in a cool place Vivien, I reckon your butternut squash should last you the best part of 12 months. A week ago we ploughed our way through a jumbo one which was harvested in Autumn 2019 and it was still in perfect condition. I've just picked ...

Another reason for growing your own? Interested in an item in today's Telegraph that a third of all purchased fresh fruit and veg we buy contains harmful pesticide chemicals and many items from abroad contain pesticide residues which are banned In the UK. The worst culprits containing multiple pesti...

Westi says a lot of truth. If you're in a mental low, going out onto your plot and finding all your new seedlings have been totally decimated by slugs or pigeons is hardly like to enhance your mood, and just enforces the feeling that everything in life is balanced against you. I suppose serious gard...

I think this is why this second lockdown is proving harder, especially for the elderly. . Back in spring we had some glorious weather and more incentive to get outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. Now with grey skies, cold winds and rain on the daily agenda getting outdoors is proving harder for ...

She,s obeying Lockdown regulations and is still working from home !

Years ago when we had a cat it would occasionally be out late at night (althiugh it was generally happy to be called in at dusk) and we saw several confrontations with a fox in iur front garde. The fox always backed off! We have foxes round here appearing in daytime, mainly because that,s often when...

Well done Retropants. At least your muscles has the winter months to recover and after such a long wait ai,m sure yiur spring planting will be all the more enthusiastic when it happens. It,s surprising how much one can in a relatively small plot with a little careful planning. We have ,t heard much ...