No effect on me except it must affect my eyesight cos I can't see a poll:-)

>VV I'm sorry but the willow is truly dead: bark falling off the main trunk. The woodpeckers enjoyed hammering away last summer and many branches were covered in holes where they had been at work.I suspect an outbreak of honey fungus judging by the growths last autumn. (it appears endemic in our gar...

To OH
No need to change your name so far. No frosts. All growing nicely with bubblewrap:-)

Grown from seed 2 years ago.Connover's Colossal. Nice with a stir fry.

(very early: the recent rains made it all shoot up with a whoosh).

Well I think modern technology is wonderful- especially electronics.. cos after being brand new and highly desirable when first produced, in 3 years time NO-ONE wants it. So if you are prepared to always have 3 years or more old technology you can keep up to date for peanuts. eg.. 2 MB digital camer...

I find Metcheck Weatherwatch far more accurate than BBC Gradening weather forecast.
Rain yesterday to the hour (!) when Metcheck said .. and they said very little. Amazingly good!

I have just (3 weeks ago) taken cuttings of a neighbour's clematis. I took a 5mm diameter branch , cut into 5 lengths each about 15cms long and put each into a 3inch pot with a mix of multipurpose compost and gritty soil. That's it. And watered every two days. So far every one bar one has produced s...

When gardening yesterday.. and today.. I noticed significantly more ladybirds than normal. In fact, on the flower beds 2-3 ladybirds evry 50cms or so.

Anyone else notice the same or is it just a local population explosion?

Badgers like chickens. They will break through chicken wire.. Here you have to use welded wire - more expensive...(but cheaper than eaten chicken)

And of course the foxes follow..and climb.

And squirrels climb and eat eggs.. and chicken wire is not any good against a determined squirrel....

My own experience of using non sterilised compost to grow seeds has been a diasaster: lots of weeds .. plus slug eggs which grew to slugs! (we have a LOT of slugs as the local field is quite marshy about 20 metres away). And we had loads of stray seeds: mainly birch and buddleia : so loads of weeds....

My greenhouse is unheated apart from frosts. At night it goes down to around 5C and my tomatoes are A1 ok...

Last year my new asparagus (grown prior year from seed), was late coming through- end May)..

This year I have 5 spears so far .. and counting...

Pity about the lack of rain...

Judging by our pear tree and our raspberries, lots of flies (smaller than bees) are also busy doing the bees' jobs...

I use pencil and white plastic labels. Soem have holes in ends so can wire to a plant. Bought another 100(? 150) on ebay this year as last lot break after 10 or so years. Clean every year with liquid Ajax or scouring powder or wire wool pan cleaner impregnated with soap: scratches = bad news. I try ...

Theory is mobile phone transmissions (near masts) confuse their direction senses and they get lost. In the US, many large - multi acre crops - hire beekeepers to deliver a lorry full of hives .. and the bees pollinate the crop. We seem to have a normal level and lots of bumble bees .. but no statist...