That was good news. I have access to square 25 litre containers (we make the firefighting foam that was all over the television screens a few weeks ago and use lots of them), unfortunately our design has the handle built into the top so I'll lose that when I cut them but the volume will be the same ...

After posting I looked up Sue Strickland's article from last year. It looks like I must keep the Sante until April or they will bolt so might also keep the Golden Gourmet for a few weeks. I had planted them in trays of fairly dry compost in the insulated but not yet heated greenhouse but I shall tra...

Do I remember similar problems with this unchristian christian on the old forum?
She should be made to watch a loop tape of Richard Dawkins excellent "Faith - The Root of All Evil"

Bought my shallots today and was surprised by the advice on the label:

"Plant your bulbs after the danger of frost".

What do you think?

They were Sante and Golden Gourmet both 75p for 25 nice bulbs, less 15% in the Winter sale which I thought wasn't a bad deal.

Having seen the walled veg garden at Tatton Park on TV we went for a look. That had big posh painted labels on all the crops but there was no doubt where they were in the use or ornament debate - they said useful things like Tomato, Spinach, Runner Bean, etc.!

Thanks for all that. It seems the Bard nearly had it right - 2B but not 2B.

How do you label things? I use plastic labels and permanent markers but they aren't reliably permanent. For example I have three rows of sprouts, two doing well one not so good but I can't read the names written last summer. My wife says it is because I clean the labels by soaking them in 50% bleach...

I have a stock of 5' pieces of treated slate battening that I knock in in pairs 1' apart every 5'along the rows. I cadge old binder twine off a local farmer and put horizontal strings along the rows at about 1', 2', 3' and 4' high down one side. Then I push birch pea sticks into the row and put stri...

Second eary Charlotte are an unbelievable flavour if you like waxy salad potatoes. Also roast and chip really well and even keep despite being second earlies, used our last just before Christmas. I grow Rocket for the speed (sorry about that) as first earlies. They do have the new potato taste but o...

The only reply I can think of to Richard's post is a request. Can I please have some seeds of your alchemy plant so I can change all my base trace elements into gold? I'm sure they would make a fine underplanting for my five pound note tree and I would be able to get rich quick.

How can compost increase trace elements? If they aren’t in your soil, they cannot get into your plants so they aren’t in your compost! Some plants may move and concentrate them. Deep rooted Comfrey added to the compost or used as a mulch may make them available from the sub-soil. But the chances are...

It is the season of tolerance and goodwill so I shouldn't resort to uncharateristic profanities but the reason Carole didn't realise fertiliser kills microbes and worms is because it is b******s!

Once again the debate between Realistic Organic and Legal Organic. I believe the Legal Organic movement is doing a serious disservice to the health of the nation. We need a classification based on real safety rather than unproved theory. The objective should be food that is free of residues from pes...

Has anybody tried using a fish tank light, or even a complete fish tank, for a propagator?

How do you get the earliest tomatoes? I’m always disappointed with how slowly my first tomatoes ripen, it would be great to have some with the early summer weather in June. Unfortunately I don’t record first tomato in my diary so I can’t quote dates. I have a heated propagator, a small heated greenh...