I note the comment"banana skins, onion, citrus, meat and fish scraps that cannot go in a wormery" at the top of the advert m Wel I compost all the above in a wormery with no problems... (grapefruit and all...) Are Staffordshire worms tougher or is the general advice on what worms will not ...

I spray with a solution of soap and water (decorators soap solution works well). Kills mamy and is organic (and cheap)

My compost heap always gets a few tomatoes in autumn from the stems.. And my garden then grows various tomato plants in mid summer.. including last year 2 hanging baskets.. (Gradeners Delight I think). The tomatoes tasted fine... - in fact more flavourful than greenhouse grown probably because of th...

Well of course one contribution to global warming is electricity distribution. Ever wonder why the cost of a KWH from electricity is about 3 -4 times that of gas? Answer: because about 60% of all electricity generated is lost as heat from power lines and substations... So we are heating the air natu...

Well I'm hatching quail in a home made incubator : total cost for incubator nil as made from surplus parts/surplus packaging/old dimmer switch etc...

I have a old (rehandled twice) small spade whose blade is about 20cm wide and 25cm long. Ideal for digging holes for fence posts (we have CLAY:-(. Was my father in laws so about 60?years old and very nice to handle as light and compact...also ideal for digging up deep weedroots plus nettles and bram...

I started yoga 5 years ago - once a week.

Compared to when I started I am much more supple... does it prevent back pains when strating digging after a layoff? No.. but they go very quickly....

Hello Fish and welcome.

Hope your name means (and am sure it does) you are saner than me....

Having grown up in NE Scotland and moved to Staffordshire:

1. it's warmer here.
2. I never plant anything uncovered outside before end April.

So I agree: far too early...

My previous post was too optimistic.
We had our first pile of frogspawn Sunday night - 18th March.

It snowed - right on cue - the next day:-)

robin, blackbird, bluetit,chaffinch (lots), greattit, longtailed tit,coal tit, siskin (rare), thrush (occasional), crow, jackdaws, magpies, dunnocks,yellow hammer, bullfinch,greater spotted woodpecker,tree creeper,pheasant,wood pigeon, collared dove, wren and less often merlin, sparrowhawk, goshawk,...

Forecast for us is -4C.. so greenhouse heater on (as usual at night) plus fleece over evrything in greenhouse 9at night)...


Nothing outside...

Hard frost this am.. BBC Gardening weather forecast very useful.
No outdoor sowing before April here.. and yes we have had snow in early may before..

Interesting. We have about .5 acre garden with fields on 2 sides. At the front - south facing - I often grow dahlias which become covered in blackfly harvested by ants. I no longer spray with anything but soap solution (no insecticides in garden at all) and crush blackfly by hand running up dahlia s...

Weil's disease..