Ate some of mine today.....microwaved whole in their (pricked) oiled skins....very nice too!

Dug my crop of these up yesterday, a fair crop but looking forward to cooking these (? steaming) later........

I'm also not sure they are as effective as 'ordinary' pellets, it is difficult to judge accurately (my fault) as I also used nematodes (once this season) and slug pubs. Carrots were certainly not protected as well as I would have liked, and I had to resow twice to get decent rows. Other previously v...

I've decided to follow Sarah Raven's advice and have used some spare patches of ground to grow a late show of cutting flowers. Yesterday I lifted the rest of my banana shallots (very good they are too!)and planted the vacant bed with multi-headed sunflowers, zinneas and various calendula. I have als...

Got half an 8' x 4' raised bed full of them now, really starting to put some weight on now!

Horseflies have a pair of mandibles that puncture the skin....see below, they are charming little critters...

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... n%26sa%3DN

Just back from the pharmacy - the lady was bit a gruff poked my leg till it hurt and proclaimed its a bite and packed me off with some noxious hydrocortisone cream. Deb - you can clearly see two puncture markes at the centre of the welt (made by the fangs of the spider i guess - yuk) did yours have...

Just reading all of this, it reminds me very much of the horsefly thread we had last year; my bite was horrendous and ended up black around the edges....wonder if it could have been....?

My early cabbages were outside hardening off (joke - only 76.6F here!) and the small whites had already laid their eggs. Gave my brassicas a quick once over just before I planted them today......several small eggs on the undersides of the leaves, obviously got them when mine were being hardened off...

My lone goldfish is still ok, he's in a large water tank and has kept the water midge free all last year. :D

Got an email from Thompson & Morgan this morning, offering 10 Vivaldi potatoes and 5 Mayan Gold for £3.49...remembered this post!

Well hopefully between the lot of us, we should get SOME top bananas eh?

How is everyone growing bananas shallots this year doing with them? I started one batch off in early January, they are now in 4" pots in my cold greenhouse. Batch 2 sown a couple of weeks ago are pricked out into modules, and I'm going to try an early April sowing too, as there were divided opi...

It only looks so neat 'coz it's mostly empty at the moment! The allium raised beds have overwintering onions, garlic and shallots growing well, the others are either manured and covered (I am going to try JB's method for root beds, removing the manure before planting time) which adds to the 'neat' l...

I like having the magazine delivered early.

I look forward to getting it, read it through, then re-read it a month later when it is 'real time' and enjoy it all over again!

Perhaps I'm just easily pleased....