It must have been a very mild winter. These nemesis have come through the winter beautifully. And even self sown a few little ones in random pots. The scent is amazing too.
Anyone else had “strange survivors”? No

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The leaves on my tomato plants are quite large this year, so they are shading a number of my tomatoes, so should I remove some leaves, half the size of them or just let them grow,

Can anyone identify this tree? It is about 20 feet high and the same wide, growing in a very old disused churchyard.


           

Any recommended kitchen gadgets?
Reviews - good or bad are welcome.

 Mouli Herb Mill. 

   

I don't use it often but its good to have, in the back of the cupboard, for those mint sauce moments. It makes chopping a load of mint, easy. Bit messy to clean afterwards but very satisfying to use.
Takes up very little room so no need to feel guilty about hoarding rarely used gadgets.

One negative is that the Web calls it Vintage or Retro. Surely a gadget that still earns its keep after 30+ years  deserves better than that!!

Does anyone else have one?

My aubergines were looking healthy till a few days ago. First a big leaf on this plant started drooping and then a few more. I'm fairly sure they are suffering from  Verticillium wilt, or some form of wilt anyway, like my tomatoes do if not grafted. Some are still looking OK but it could be just a matter of time.

I had a look on the internet and came across this paper on grafting aubergine onto tomato rootstocks So I'll definitely give that a try next year. I'll try both submarine and Roma and see how they do (or not).

https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/j...-p2058.xml

"With eggplant as scion and tomato as root stock, effects of eggplants/tomato grafting were studied. The results indicated that the grafting enhanced disease resistance significantly,promoted protential growth and increased yield, improved fruit quality to some extent as well."

My poorly Aubergine plant:

   

I’ve taken cuttings from this thing. Can you put a name to it for me please.

               

Have a lovely day

   

Have been absent for quite a while on this forum - Sorry.
ALL my time has been spent fretting about plants and flowers for our only daughter’s wedding on June 26th. 
The worry about how many could attend and who would have to be “disinvited” only added to the worry about whether flowers would be ready for bouquets, boutonnières, table flowers, church flowers etc etc etc.
Anyway all over now - phew, huge sigh of relief.
You’ll be pleased to know that the quaking grass was too late for the event (as were lots of other things I had been hoping for) so at least she didn’t have any “weevils” in any of the flower decorations!
All went brilliantly, except that the beribboned bridal car broke down on the way to Church. The bride in full regalia and her father in his Sunday best had to push it on to a grass verge outside a hotel that just happened to be holding a Wedding Fair that day. Excellent advertising for them! 
I just wish I had been there to take photos. Almost “Candid Camera” for those of us old enough to remember that programme.
Many, many lovely people stopped to try and help, and the bride hitched a lift and got to church with ten minutes to spare. The car, in disgrace, did NOT make it to the Church or the ceremony.

Sometimes we use words and phrases without knowing their true origin. For example, today I heard someone say something was "in the offing". It's a funny expression when you really look at it, isn't it? I was impelled to find out more, and was surprised at the etymology and real meaning.

So, without reference to a dictionary or goggle-ducking, who can explain what, who, or where an offing is?

Does anyone remember the F Plan Diet? High Fibre. Well, this has nothing to do with that.

I've been thinking up yet another Plan for the garden focusing on priorities and realised how many "ingredients" begin with F.
Food
Fruit
Flowers
Foliage
Fragrance
Flavour
Ferment
Friends
Foes
Forest
Fertilise
Forage
FUN.

Any more F words before I Finalise my plan please?