Not much help with runner beans I know, but the lack of aviation putting reflective water vapour into the upper atmosphere may account for an extra degree or so warmer by day and colder by night - extra caution needed this year.

A local- ish Frosts garden centre (Milton Keynes) are still delivering for orders over £60 up to 15 miles, for £5, so I got supplies of feeds and compost. Worth checking the individual store's website - they weren't set up for internet shopping, so it was more like give us your wish list and we'll s...

We do. But nothing is wasted, what won't shred for composting goes in the stove the following year. Our soil tends towards alkaline, so composted pine needles make a good mulch where the pH would be better a bit lower. In fact I also scrounge other trees from the neigbourhood for this too There is a...

How strange. A problem I've never had. But I do have to clear up frequently after neighbours cats s**ting amongst them, which might be linked.

What is all this fuss sowing broad beans under glass in pots ? Mine go straight in the ground, in November. Suitable varieties (Aquadulce, Sutton, de Monica, ...) will do fine provided the ground is free draining. What you want is good root system development over winter, not a lot of top growth whi...

I don't know about preserving, but one of my green woodworker friends went through a phase of finishing everything by charring with a blowtorch, then linseed oil. Produces a beautiful black finish, with the wood grain highlighted.

I once used a sulphur candle in my greenhouse. Never again, set every bit of metalwork corroding.

Franchi Red Pear. Big, fleshy fruit for either sandwiches or culinary use.

The recent "blue" varieties, Indigo apple and Indigo blue beauty have great flavour as well as an interesting colour.

I don't think you'll tell by looking. It is easy for cross pollination to occur, perhaps even at the seed producer ? But I think chilli heat depends on ripeness and weather. Some varieties do vary in heat, mostly mild but with the hidden surprise amongst them ! I don't really know enough biology to ...

Does it keep long ? If you're making 2L to use at 50ml/5L, that would go a long way for me. I guess halving the quantities is easy.

There's always a Geoff Hamilton style flea beetle trolley ! A thing that straddles the row, carrying the sticky yellow card, with a wire or something to disturb the beetles, making them jump onto the stick trap. No, I've never tried it. Another solution tried commercially is a sort of vacuum cleaner !

Thanks for your thoughts. Scorching has been my assumption, it does seem to be worst on sweet peppers or fleshy walled chillies, and does seem to be worst in hot conditions, so particularly bad this and last year. On the other hand, it is happening on plants outdoors as well as under glass. I will h...

This is a problem i see each year, and it is getting worse. On thick fleshed peppers and chillies, some in pots outside in a sunny site, others under glass. Compost - some are in homemade mix, some in the new formulation New Horizons. Patches of fruit skin go soft, then brown and necrotic, then dry ...

Most of the work in growing veg rarely gets shown. Weeding, soil preparation, protection from wildlife, pest and disease control, etc. Instead we see seed sown into a clean raised bed, and crops harvested. And that seems to be what so many new plot holders think they need to do - clear the plot, put...

I think not. I think the ones for Christmas cropping are kept in cold storage so they don't realise summer has happened yet. Otherwise they'll come up next spring like volunteers do. I could be wrong, this is vague memory. I only grew them once, I don't want new potatoes with my Christmas dinner, I ...