Nice demonstration picture Deb (and what a nice background view for your garden too !)

Will show this to my husband, although what he'll say to having yet another "To do" item added to his maintenance action list I don't know !

Am curious about the desire to scoop up pallets. Perhaps you can all let me into your secret as to what you use them for? Making compost bins? I current have two wire cages which serve for this purpose, but after 25 years use they're getting past their used-by date. Can sombody perhaps direct me to ...

Johnboy - was fascinated by your local history and your mention of the "Dunny." Have never heard it called that before and wonder if it's a local term for the privvy, or whether it was a slightly different building with other uses as well. (Just curious - find some of the old local usages ...

I've had several self-sown courgettes this year(completely different shape & much creamier texture) than the original plants, and one self-down winter squash which has produced two enormous marrow-shape fruits, (neither of which bear any resemblance to original varieties of squash seeds thrown o...

Perhaps this has come up before (I'm a newbie here) but I rarely see any mention about human poo being added to compost heaps. Are there any specific health & safety reasons for not doing so? I remember my grandparents having an outdoor privvy with a "thunderbox" and the contents of th...

Yes, my husband disowns me when I decide I need a few more 5 litre plastic mineral water bottles to convert to individual cloches, and I go ferreting in the local plastic recycling bin. (Especially as I once fell into it and had to wait for somebody to come along and pull me out, dressed in my gubby...

Was interested to read a comment of complaint that somebody had bought an aubergine seedling from a garden centre and that the variety had been unnamed. I find this infuriating too. If it does well, (or badly) I want to know whether to repeat growing it again next year or to try a different variety....

Was interested in your comment on blight, Colin, because last year my whole tomato crop caught it while we were on holiday and we returned to a row of completely withered plants. I always thought that blight was an air borne disease which mostly happened in really wet weather but perhaps I'm wrong? ...

Yes, know it's not a fruit or veg but my rather fine red acer is very potbound and I need to transfer it to a bigger pot, so advice please! I can get it out of the pot (I hope) because the top is wider than the base but the roots are thick and tangled. Should I wait until all the leaves have fallen ...

Will shortly be clearing a sunny south facing border where I've grown climbing beans and tomatoes in soil which is generally dry and stoney. Although I have a compost heap I can't generate enough and wonder whether it would be detrimental to dig in shredded twigs and grass clippings into the bare ea...

How are all you folks ripening your outdoor tomatoes? Are you leaving them on the vines to catch the last sunshine of this Indian summer, or are you picking them all now and letting them ripen indoors in case the nights turn too chilly? I'm always tempted to grab the last of the sunshine to ripen th...

Many thanks Chantal for your prompt and very detailed explanation.

Can't find anywhere on the site which explains what a PM is. Is it a Personal Message which you send to a correspondent but clicking on the PM icon, which goes to their private e-mail address to ensure that it's not made public (and thus subject to abuse and spam ?) i.e. so that then if you want to ...

I see somebody has already suggested Duct tape which seems to be a cure-all for just about everything. Do you know that it will even get rid of warts and veruccas? Just stick it on, cover it up with some pink elastoplast if it's in a visible area and you're worried about cosmetic niceities and leave...

We get these giant slugs too, but I now get my own back and stick them on the bird table. They seem too big for the blackbirds and frogs to cope with but the magpies love them ! (Not that I really want to encourage magpies onto my bird table but I can't think of any other way of getting rid of them ...