WE had a problem with plum moth maggots for the first time ever this year and some of our trees are 20 years old. I wondered whether it was connected to the late flowering and consequently late fruit development. Our Victoria plum was the worst affected. Our two greengages Reine Claude and Mannings ...

My friend in South Africa says that the swallows are arriving there.

I used to run computing courses and some people often mentioned that they wore out the lettering on keyboards. We often wondered if some people just had a more acidic perspiration than others. My cream MS keyboard still has distinct letters even after years of use. I don't tend to swap it as often a...

I'm a new garlic grower and know it needs a period do exposure to cold. I don,t have any spare planting space just yet. Can I sow the cloves in modules in my mini plastic greenhouse now and plant them out in later autumn when I've got some cleared growing space? To be honest I'd hang on to them and...

Just to say still keep on your guard when sourcing manure. This week I had a call saying that an allotment site in Coventry was having problems after usin herbicide contaminated manure.

So five years down the line and the effects of aminopyralid are still surfacing.

For the same reason you shouldn't have fruit near cut flowers as the gas they give off will speed up the decaying process.

We feed birds all year round as recommended by the BTO. We find that if there is more natural food at certain times then they come to the garden less frequently.

Maybe if you live in the middle of the country they will find more natural food .

Usually the colour of peppers changes as they ripen but some will just turn to yellow and others will become a blackish colour. YOu can pick and use them green as well.

We have lots of goldfinches in the garden especially over winter and spring.

At the moment we have lots of juveniles that haven't yet got their red faces.

They absolutely love sunflower hearts.

Belated Happy Birthday from me too

I won't be popular saying this but bring back the old Winter Tar wash. Never had any problems with bugs then. Beryl. We usually use a winter wash based on vegetable oils but we never got round to using it last winter. We really use it too control plum aphids that in the past have devastated our tre...

Yes, probably Glallotments, not a 100% sure but I do find winter months one forgets to keep the bands clear especially on the allotment and if you suffer with ants as I do it helps to stop them too. Leaves and stuff they will use as bridges. Bye the way the inserts do need changing twice in the sea...

If you hang a Pheromone Trap in the tree in May it does help.1 trap will do about 4 trees. Grease bands applied in the Autumn and spring will hep too as long as you keep them free of any debri. Beryl. We uses pheromone traps for our apples and will get some for plums but we didn't have this problem...

We have lots of this on the plot in the fruit tree beds. It's very pretty but also very determined.

The one I struggle to remove is creeping cinquefoil!

We haven't had them before but usually all the plums are ripe and harvested by the end of August so I wonder if it is the timing this year.