Rock Dust? However I wonder if the position on trace elements, takeup by plants etc is as straightforward as this? For example, Comfrey is a well known example of something we grow to then use to provide nutrients to other plants (e.g. by making a comfrey "tea" or adding the leaves to comp...

I'd happily eat several of the ones on your list Alan. My daughter loves cooking Indian food and often used to cook wonderful savoury breakfasts for us. Apart from the usual toast, I quite like porridge when I'm organised enough to make it. This sometimes gets tinkered with to include dried fruit, s...

Virtually all my spuds (salad & maincrop) have blight. They were slow getting going so I don't expect we've got much.

Double irritation as I usually rely on spuds keeping a good bit of our plot covered and clear of weeds

Like Geoff, I'd suggest starting with good stock, then aiming to keep a few back to re-plant in Sept/Oct.

I've used Garlic Farm before and got good results.

no hover flies at all; not seen a ladybird since April; But at least there are no aphids at all either. Sorry to hear this Alan In our back garden and conservatory, we have had a steady supply of hoverflies and aphids. Because of the latter, I gathered some Ladybird larvae to bring in and put on ou...

Sorry to hear about this Colin.

We have good numbers round here. Plus a Mason Bee nest in the garden and an impromptu nest of medium-sized bumbles in the roof of our porch (scares the bejesus out the delivery drivers!)

Tony Hague wrote:. Mind you, this year my hardneck garlic has 1" bulbs and the scapes are covered in rust, so you've done better than me !

Ditto with many of mine Tony. And they were doing so well up to early April.

Out of a dismal crop of veg so far, the ones that have seemed to thrive on our plot despite the the wet and lack of warmth are:
- Climbing Peas
- Calabrese & Oriental greens

How about the rest of you?

And at this time of the year - when we've run out of room to top up the soil - lots of regular feeds. So out of interest, if these were growing in an open field, you wouldn't be adding feed at the same rate? Just relying on sufficient natural or added levels in the soil? I assume the more limited r...

Thanks Colin Miles, I have always had "adequate" results in the allotment and only rarely watered. Certainly I'm not scientific to know at what stage in the growing cycle the two points you mention occur.

Guess anything in a container needs closer attention than plants in the ground.

Hi Colin_ M, Do you think that the choice of growing medium had anything to do with the final outcome? JB, It's possible. I used the same JI multipurpose compost that I use to pot on all seedlings and which usually works well. In addition, Marshalls provided a small quantity of Potato fertilizer wh...

Whilst attending a workshop with Charles Dowding a few years back, he showed us a couple of rotating ones he'd been trying, neither of which he considered worth continuing with.

Quite a few of my Charlottes have got brown patches on the leaves & overall growth looks like it has slowed down. My Maincrop however look fine & vibrant.

I'm near Bristol.

Does anyone know if you use a piece of a big bulb if you can keep the rest as I read that you can easily end up with food poisoning if you eat garlic that has been exposed to the air? I don't believe there's any danger of food poisoning by doing this. Whether the remaining garlic keeps well is a se...

As well as the allotment, I decided to get one of Marshalls set of 3 Growing sacs, plus spuds (Mozart, Accent and Charlotte). I started these indoors in February, and had to put them out by March because they were growing so fast. I protected them from frost, continued to earth up and the foliage lo...