I've heard a lot about Jackie French, in particular that she says that the soil isn't warm enough to plant anything until you can sit on it with your bare bottom and not feel the cold - something like that anyway!!
Her books are like gold dust second-hand so when I saw this one for a measly £2.95, I pounced!
I've only read a few chapters since it arrived this morning but enough to realise a few things - firstly, since she is Australian, the sowing months need to be turned on their heads for the Northern hemisphere.
Secondly, I've had to google some of the plant names like Kumera (Sweet potato), Choko, Kurrajong and Irish strawberries!!
As for "Bandicooting potatoes" - I'll let you look that one up!!
I know she grows plants that we can only dream of growing outdoors, like citrus and avocados but there are suggestions for colder climates. .........and a small suburban garden is quarter acre...but I like the way she writes and there are some wacky suggestions in there that I think I will relate to, so, stand by your beds and be prepared.

Spotted this on Facebook.

Complaints to Councils and extracts of letters written to them:

Hello Folks

I thought I'd start this thread for people to track/discuss how their shallots perform this year.

I still need to order my Zebrune seeds and was planning sowing in modules sometime in March?

OK, so after reading Specs thread on heating cables I've suddenly realised I can't do without a heat bed to take dahlia cuttings and start of some seedlings. 

I hate DIY and the thought of buying in all the bits...so I've been researching - I've come across the HOTBOX Heatwave mats. It's a complete set up and probably a less fuss option for me.
You buy the heatmat the size of your requirements and they supply the thermostat.
You put it on your bench on top of a thick layer of polystyrene, plastic/pond liners? on top and then a layer of capillary matting. Plug it in and away to go.

I like the simplicity of it. I'm very much tempted even though I should be spending my pennies on a kitchen sink.

I rang my log supplier to order a trailer load of logs, but he said all he had was 'wet' wood. I imagine he meant unseasoned wood and as beggars can't be choosers I ordered the wood anyway.
Can I still burn unseasoned wood? If not I am in big stook, and will need to order some more somewhere else!

I though that by playing about with smokeless fuel and brickettes I may be able to keep the woodburner alight, adding unseasoned wood as necessary?

Have I wasted my money do you think?

Hello all, 

Wanting to pick the hive mind, if I may. My house hunting has not been going particularly well (which is probably good as I would have struggled to view much over the past few weeks post-COVID). There aren't many houses with decent gardens coming up on Rightmove right now, so I'm poring over the few that do appear. There was a Victorian detached house that was in need of "a full scheme of modernisation" that had an enormous garden that made me want to weep when I viewed it on the satellite images. The house doesn't look that bad on the surface, but the fact the estate agents comment on the work it needs suggests that there are some hidden horrors! If it weren't on a very busy main road in one of my less-preferred areas and was a three-bed rather than a two, I would definitely be viewing it as a potential forever home with a view to slowly improving it over a number of years. 

Another house has just come up with a very long (but narrow) south facing garden. It's not my ideal location, but not very far from my parents which could come in handy. It's also well under my maximum spend. The house is in good condition (neutrally decorated - other than one very red wall - with a tasteful kitchen and bathroom so rather better than some of the 1950s bathrooms in the houses I've been viewing so far). I wouldn't expect to have to do a lot of work on the house (though there's always scope for the unexpected!) so could focus on the garden right off the bat. The garden is quite overlooked by the other houses, which is a definite negative for me, but I could hope to remedy that with the right planting. However, it is also on quite a slope (away from the house)! There's a flatter area at the top but they've gone and stuck a load of decking on that part (as an aside, I would like to say that I absolutely loathe decking and it wouldn't be staying in any garden I expected to make a forever home). 

I grew up in a house with a long sloping garden, but my parents mostly kept it as either lawn or wild growth (plus ponds, and some beds around the sides of the one flat part) until just recently so I don't have much experience of growing on a slope. I would think drainage might be an issue? And things washing down the slope if I left too much open ground at any given time? I wouldn't really want to have to terrace it, or put in lots of levelled off raised beds (I'm hoping to go with more of a Charles Dowding no-dig no-bed-sides approach) so I'd appreciate any thoughts/experience you may have.

I'll be viewing the house this weekend. Obviously, it may not end up being somewhere I want to put in an offer for (the number of houses overlooking the garden definitely gives me pause, I'd prefer a house that needs a bit more doing up, and it's not my first choice area). However, given the geography where I'm house-hunting, it's very unlikely that I'm going to find a perfect large flat garden so the more I know about slope gardening the better!

Here is a link to the house in question. I'll probably only leave the link up for a few days for privacy reasons (especially if I make an offer!) Would be grateful if you could all avoid naming the location in your comments!

My pal sent me this and had me laughing.  Have you got any to add?

   

Anyone got one of these or used one, also known as a stirrup hoe. I've seen good reviews online and I don't get on too well with the dutch hoe I have so was thinking about investing. Seems like cost is around £30 for a good one which is more than I'd normally spend on allotment tools but worth if it makes the weeding a bit easier.