Primrose, I got rid of our bay tree last year because it became too large and cumbersome to heave into the greenhouse every late autumn. But I picked all the best leaves, gave them a gentle wipe with damp kitchen paper and then froze them on a flat baking tray. They are now in a bag in the freezer a...

Happy Birthday, Primrose! May all your wishes be fulfilled!

I need help for our murky pond: we get green algae in it every spring but applying a small barley straw bale and the growth of a water lily and lots of frogbit usually means that the grunge disappears by mid-summer. This year, however, I keep having to pull out horrible stringy stuff even now. There...

We have had more than 100mm of rain in the last five days (not complaining, we needed it!), but to make up for it, today is a lovely dry sunny day with a brisk but warm southwesterly wind. Grand day for drying washing!

About cutting bamboo canes: I found that laying them on a soft ground (like the lawn) and then giving the cane a hard thwack with a sharp spade makes a very clean cut. Just make sure that there is nobody else about because one or two of the pieces tend to fly off!

Thank you, Shallot Man, I will do that next year. Just to qualify the greenhouse drying: it's a wooden greenhouse and I dry the shallots and garlic by 'hanging' them upside down in the wooden slats on the top shelf. The greenhouse door is open all day (it has a second netting door to keep out any wi...

Our runner beans are reaching for the sky! I planted a few left over runner bean seeds in a large pot and stood it against our south facing house wall. Well, the plants are now climbing up through the Virginia creeper on the wall and have already reached the first floor. Yesterday's picking had to b...

Stephen, I know it is not easy, but why not try to avoid putting seeding weeds into the compost in the first place? We use four ex-dustbins as compost bins, after drilling holes into the bottom and sides. They are used for all the green stuff from the garden, vegetable kitchen waste, egg shells, mix...

The other thing you could try is Nemasys nematodes and now would be a good time to apply these.

JohnB, your post is very appropriate in time because I spent about an hour yesterday cleaning up our shallots (Jermor and Yellow Moon) and garlic (Mersley Wight), cutting off the roots, the long stems and the loose outer skins. And I did notice that amongst the Jermor there were quite a few softish ...

All the best for the coming year, shallotman. May it be a happier one than the last and I hope you had a good day today.

John, the actual cabbage root fly lays her eggs in the soil against the plant stem, so do you not use brassica collars round the stem, either bought or home made? I have never heard of them attacking radishes and the collars wouldn't work there, of course. If the eggs overwinter, as you surmised, tu...

I have always thought that too much lime in the soil causes scab. Perhaps you limed the ground last year and it's still in there?

Sorry, I am stumped. Sally Wright, we need you here!

It looks like a mould. Wherever you are, perhaps you had a lot of rain? Too late for this year, but I would certainly avoid growing any legumes in that same area next year. Or is the white stuff on the actual bean the same 'soft bedding' as the inside of the pod? Any unusual marks on the outside of ...