Merry Tillers and Howards were all good machines but I would suggest the Mayflower walk behind tractor with scythe attachment but I don't know how available they are now. They had a Villiers engine with a forward/reverse gearbox but provided no engine braking when going downhill as I learnt the hard...

You are absolutely correct Primrose; and regarding too much water and the cold, I should have known better but I wanted to get away for a few days now and again and thought that sitting the seed trays in some water would prevent them drying out but instead they have been too cold and wet and have di...

Good points raised Cider Boys however why does it have to be an exact science on NPK of the soil. When fertilizer is sprayed not all of it goes on the land due to the wind direction. Perhaps they are more worried about using contaminated manure. "The advantage that FYM does has over chemical f...

Planted my final row of onions to-day and completed most of the rotavating. Soil still seems very cold and I have had very poor results with my seeds in the glasshouse, the nights have been too cold and I may have over watered my seed trays and I think they have rotted. I have a paraffin heater but ...

Surely the reason that farmers have used what has been described as artificial or manmade fertilizers is that they know the exact constituents (NPK) they contain and their respective ratios so they can precisely apply the fertilizer to gain the most economic results. FYM on the other hand contains t...

I think yourself and Shallot Man are certainly doing it the correct way, cutting them with some eyes/shoots on both parts….just me being silly about round potatoes,! All well here thank you, Barney…..just a little slower at doing some jobs but, I think we are al like that… Glad you are still gettin...

Good afternoon, Barney, lovely to see you on the forum and I hope you are keeping well! In answer to your question, I suppose the answer could be both….a round potato could be cut sideways, while a long oval potato could be cut longways….. I suppose it was a bit of a silly question OH but I have al...

I hurriedly put in about the same amount of early potatoes as Peter yesterday to try and plant before rain was forecast. Incidentally when cutting large tubers in half to plant do people cut then longways or sideways?

Barney

Hello JoannaH, the above advice from oldherbaceous is excellent (as always). I admire anyone who gardens in what is now termed 'organically' and the no-dig method has many recommendations. I must admit however, that I could not manage my gardening without the help of glyphosate and in my view time b...

We have been hearing cuckoos regularly for a few weeks now and there are plenty of warblers about for them to lay in their nests. I have not seen a hedgehog this year either, last year I found one dead, tangled in electric sheep netting that must have happened over night. This year I'm running three...

How right you are Primrose regarding the evil oxalis. I have been plagued by oxalis for years, it has even got into the glasshouse soil. I used to raise my seedings such as leeks in a seedbed that had oxalis and although I used to check the roots before transplanting I have inadvertently transferred...

Bit of a light frost this morning, nipped my potato foliage although I had earthed them up reasonably well. My wife's phone showed some pictures taken three years ago on the same day and all the apple blossom was out on the Morgan Sweets and Bramley but this year they are only just beginning to flow...

Not so cold here in Somerset but far too cold for an arthritic soft southerner like me. In fact I've given up sowing and planting until it warms up. I'm even too cold to bother to get logs in for the fire and am huddled around an oil fired central heating radiator which I seldom use as I have a plen...

Planted my potatoes last Tuesday and sowed peppers/tomatoes and assorted flower seeds in my glass-house yesterday. Today I did a bit of rotavating in order to sow parsnips and leeks when the soil warms up a little more; unfortunately I lost control of the rotavator and ripped out a few yards of my O...

Managed to put in a couple of double rows of broad beans yesterday.

Barney