Thanks for the encouragement, chaps, I shall sow the rest of my rootstock seeds today. It was always intended to be an experiment and something to learn from, so I'm not daunted by first time failure. And I really do have so very many tomato plants! Potted on another load today - my sister in law as...

Lordy, it blew and howled last night! Everything is still in tact, thankfully, and nothing is the worse for it. I'm waiting for the weekend to put my overwintering sweet peas into their final home of a couple of large pots with canes, or at least once the wind has died down. I sowed some leek seeds ...

A quick update - failed at the first hurdle. Boo hoo. I followed the instructions on the Kings Seeds site and grafted at an early stage, once the first two leaves had appeared but I think this was too early and the stems just weren't sturdy enough to stand the weight of the graft and the grafting cl...

We had sparrow terraces at our old house (3 wide boxes, each subdivided into 3 individual compartments) and when hubby cleaned them out each year, he often found sprigs of lavender and bay leaves in them. Ahhhh!

Hubby and I were contemplating putting down bark chippings on the pathways between the raised beds and greenhouses but we've postponed until tomorrow. We can do either wind or rain, but we have both in large quantities this afternoon. I have no excuse not to get the VAT stuff to the accountant now. ...

Cola works on quite a lot of things, including dissolving teeth! It contains a reasonably high level of phosphoric acid. If you buy some new jeans and want to soften them up, put them on a wash with an added can of cola poured in - works a treat!

Ouch, Westi. I did something similar a good few years back now, but it was my own fault for trying to run in a stupidly high heeled pair of shoes! An ice pack is your friend for reducing swelling. I grafted my Frankentoms a couple of days ago but had to do them again as my cheapskate attempt at usin...

I have too many vices to mention, so I shall balance the scales on behalf of OH! Hubby would say, however, that my vice du jour is buying trees. It's not my fault - I can't turn down a good looking tree at a reasonable price. I've even started encouraging the neighbours, with success! Nothing like a...

Haha! Do nothing, Westi????
Major over-compensating with a Porsche, if you ask me. My favourite purple is on my broccoli:)

The instructions do say to sow the rootstock 2 weeks before the main variety. Of course, I completely forgot this and did them at the same time. Sigh. However, I have enough plants that there are ones of similar or smaller diameter than the rootstock so that should be okay. Frankentomatoes - here I ...

Such gorgeous weather! I weeded my raised beds and have started clearing a couple of them. There's still loads of radicchio in them and the last of my leeks, as well as garlic and shallots that are coming on well. Salads are bursting forth in the greenhouse and my mange tout that I sowed a couple of...

My curiosity got the better of me, as it always does, when I was ordering my tomato seeds and I was intrigued by some seeds for tomato grafting rootstock. Of course I bought some! They're well on their way now, along with all my other toms and I'm going to have a go at grafting a few plants. I haven...

Does anyone remember Cresta pop? It had a polar bear in sunglasses for the adverts, as I recall. I love my paper pot maker; it's nearly time to get going with them again. I may use them for my salad seedlings as they break down in the soil so well. I gave up using peat pots as they never broke down ...

My psb is flowering nicely - is there any advantage to giving it a high potash feed? Will I get more or bigger spears if I do?

Ouch, Robo. You are going through the wars. Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a better turn of events.