Dear All, my potato fork from bulldog is gasping it's last poor thing. The front metal strap is cracking and I do not think it is repairable. Does anyone know where I can buy another (possibly mail order). I am going to get some rawhide to strap it with in the hope of getting it through the Autumn d...

Dear Fish, before hot water boilers were invented for use in glasshouses they were heated using this method. True only the walls were heated but this allowed for a greater range of fruit. Many of the oldest of the large kitchen gardens had this system in some form or another. A little reading into t...

Dear Johnboy,
get yourself a deckchair, a beer cooler (with appropriate contents!) and a video camera. With luck you will make enough from the video clips to retire on.
Regards Sally Wright.

Dear All,
I have grown 2 types this year Thermindrome and Music. What I want to know is which will keep the longest as bulbs as I will be putting the rest into vinegar as minced garlic and/or processing into the freezer with soup or stews.
Regards Sally Wright.

Dear Emma, wrong way round hon. Hardneck varieties have the flower spike and the softneck ones dont. The easiest way to check for ripeness is to wait until the first 4-6 leaves are brown. On the flowering hardneck types yield is increased by the removal of the top of the flower spike. regards Sally ...

Dear All, from what I have heard here it seems that heartburn should be renamed gardener's gullet! I have found that light meals during the day work best for me. Not too much dairy produce because this can increase the production of acid and not going to bed on an empty stomach. If all this and a co...

Dear Toffeman, We have an olive at work which is growing in a sheltered courtyard and is around 15 foot high and very healthy. It occasionally has olives but they are usually very small and not worth much. The varieties normally grown in this country are the hardy ones grown primarily for their foli...

Dear Kevin, get a jar or tin and put a label on it. Call it the seed/allotment/garden fund then ask people to put into it what they feel the jar they have taken is worth to them. This way cuts out all the embarrassment of the transaction. Then when you want something for the garden etc you have some...

Dear David, potting out large plants, liming and rotation are the keys to tolerating club root in your soil. The more alkaline your soil to ph7.5 the less the plants will be affected. So liming the soil before planting is a good idea. Do a ph check before and after putting on the lime but wait at le...

Dear RBC, if it is a real sugar maple Acer saccharinum then it is not at all suitable for a domestic garden. It will get to around 100ft high when mature (and needs to be planted that far from buildings and your neighbours!) and is capable of putting on about 2ft a year. In just a few years you will...

Dear Primrose, Arum I.P. is poisonous but it also is a plant with very irritating juices which cause you to itch for days. I would advise you to wear gloves and long sleeves before dealing with it. I would also mention that the berries will spread the plant around extremely well so it might be an ad...

Dear Jenny, do not site the beehive where it's flight path will be over any of the following. Washing lines, cars, patio furniture or large expanses of clean glass eg a conservatory. Bee c**p may not seem like a big problem but with @60,000 bums producing daily the above mentioned can get covered ve...

Dear All, I agree with OH that my flat tined potato fork is the best. I also agree with Lynne that Felcos are the best secateurs (No 8's for me). As for pen knives I nearly had my dad's taken off me at Chelsea one year when they were doing bag searches. They didn't in the end but I thought later tha...

Dear All,
instead of growing beans which need picking fresh put in a drying bean such as hutterite soup or borlotti. If you still need green beans just grow them round the outside of the bed, ditto courgettes.
Regards Sally Wright.
Don't think of problems, think of soloutions.

Dear Submariner, the main thing is that pickling vinegar contains spices and is usually used for strong veg such as onions or gherkins which need all the help they can get. Beetroot has a delicate sweet earthy taste and should not be submerged in the paint stripper that masquerades for commercial pi...