Dear Tracie, there are several ways of approaching this dilemma. Enjoy the flowers when they arrive; they are rather cute and the local bees will adore them. They also make the gardener's equivalent of the steel ball cradles that were so beloved of the City Yuppie. They are great fun to pat around. ...

Dear Helen, dill and coriander are both hardy annuals and can be sown outside from April onwards. They prefer a well drained soil and if that is not available then a large pot or crate is probably best. If you want them for their leaves then they should be prevented from flowering, however both are ...

You have answered your own question. Yes they need a feed and yes they need potting up into their big girl pots now. But the yellow leaves at the base will probably stay that way now.
Regards Sally Wright.

Milk and water is a prevention - not a cure. They are infected now and it will only get worse. What you need to do now is - and I know it sounds drastic - is cut off the tops and get rid of them. There is still time for these plants to re-grow from the base and this should be disease free (hopefully...

Dear livefree, to keep your beans going so that they may be planted out you need to take out the growing tips. Make sure that there is at least 2-3 pairs of adult leaves before you pinch the top off. This will delay the need to plant out by about a fortnight (hopefully). Ideally the overnight temper...

I'm here! right, first take off about half of the leaves, best if these are the lower ones. Put a clear plastic bag over the plants and move them into the shade and keep moist. You might get lucky, hazelnuts are reasonably tough. What you did wrong was digging them up when they had leaves on; hazeln...

Dear Chloe, perhaps one of the simplest ways of dealing with the stump is to cover it with some old compost sacks (ones coloured black on the inside). Cut them open so they are flat and staple them together so they make a sheet big enough to cover the stump with about 75cms on each side of it. Do tw...

Dear Ian, the brown knobbly bits you are seeing on your trees is Apple Crown Gall. There is no treatment but it rarely proves too damaging to the tree - you should still get a crop. That said it IS infectious and so you should prune the trees with galls after you have pruned any healthy trees you ha...

Dear Donald, did I read that right; you are planting out your PSB now? In Devon, with the milder winters you have, I would not have advised even sowing PSB yet! I live in Cambridge and to avoid a fodder crop suitable for feeding giraffes in my brassica cage I do not sow Kale or PSB until the first w...

Dear Stephen,
feverfew is the host plant for orange tip butterflies; the flowers also attract hoverflies and bees so I think having some on the plot is worthwhile.
Regards Sally Wright.

Dear OH, unless Stephen kept all of last years plant labels and seed packets I suspect we are all going to have to wait until the plant starts to flower. The Chrysanthemum/Pyrethrum/"daisy"/Aster family can be right %$*&£$% to identify from just the leaves. There are thousands of them ...

Dear Stephen,
Are the leaves strongly scented with a rather rank smell? If so it could be feverfew.
Regards Sally Wright.

Dear Stephen,
in these uncertain times I doubt very much if COOK will be out for long enough for anyone to run a dishwasher with illicit items in it and not get caught.....
Regards Sally Wright

Dear All, you could try putting the seed tray (in a plastic bag!) into the fridge for a month or so to try and overcome the inhibition. DO make sure that COOK's permission is sought before placing the tray inside though. This temperature germination problem can also occur if you have left the seed p...

Dear All,
plan B for outdoor seedlings is to moisten the seeds and then put them into a bowl containing Cayenne or black pepper (or both!) to coat them before sowing. The old advice used to be coat them in paraffin but this doesn't sound very sensible to me.
Regards Sally Wright.