im looking for some help, I have adopted 2 feral cats that have started visiting the garden since my Tigger died earlier this year, I’ve been feeding them it helps with keeping any mice or rats populations down. Big downside is they have taken a shine to my raised flower bed as a toilet, I spent an hour last Saturday digging out all their faeces and replacing it with fresh topsoil. I also put some chicken wire in on top and just pressed it down onto the bed thinking that they wouldn’t get under it because of its wiry nature. Big mistake they got into the tunnel formed by the wire and used it without digging the usual hole wit her telltale mound of earth beside it. Looks like I have another hour or two today clearing it all again. 

Has anyone any suggestions of what I could put into the bed to put them off, I really don’t want to net the box off completely as I have honeysuckle and jasmine creepers planted in it along with daff bulbs and a few other plants and shrubs.

   
   
   

I bought a bag of dolomite lime on line, delivered today, now really don't know if I purchased it for the garden, or because of the memories it re-kindles, when working in the local steelworks I must have shovelled tonnes of the stuff when fettling the furnaces, now I am wishing I had taken some bags of it, it would have lasted for years and saved me some money
Do you use anything in the garden which brings back memories

I was sent a link to a seed catalogue on Issuu and found all manner of good stuff on there - and it seems to be free  unless there's a price by the item. 
Lots of books, full text and downloadable. Put your subject in the search box - and limit the language to English, unless you're multilingual, and you can spend hours reading books, magazines etc. 

I like books and I like them even more when they're free.

https://issuu.com/search?language=en&q=u...ublication

Hi Folks

Just sorting through my "leaves / lettuce" seeds and found some sorrel, the packet is open so I must have tried it before!

Anyway, does anyone grow it, I read it can be treated as an annual or perennial?

There’s not much wood in a London glassblowing exhibition, but what there is, Bob made .

https://londonglassblowing.co.uk/exhibit...blowing-2/

Share those headlines, adverts and sayings that make you think of gardening............

"Apple products worth £5m stolen from lorry on M1"

My immediate thought - its millions of apple pies or rare fruit trees.

Some Broad beans and winter hardy Peas can be sown October/November. 

Do you do this and which ones have you sown or are going to sow - and how?? 
Any hints/tips/experiences you'd like to share?

I've started some Super Aquadulce  BBs in modules in the GH and I'm sorting out some other seeds as we speak.

Hello Folks

I've been working on my plans for next year and wondered if one of you guru's could check / confirm I'm ok with the follow-on crops suggested below?

Khol-rabi and Paq Choi to follow Potatoes
Spinach and Chard to follow Broad Beans

Also, can Broccoli follow Onions??

Thanks in advance.....

What varieties of courgette are parthenocarpic?  I've found Partenon F1, and Sure Thing.  Do you know of any others?

I'm thinking of starting off an early courgette next season (or this).

Humour me.
When you go into your garden or go out for a walk do you bring something back with you? 
Something you find that appeals to you - a little treasure! It could be a flower, seed head, fir cone or on the beach, a shell or a pebble.

I've realised that whenever I go into the garden I always pick up something - could be an apple, a broken flower, a single tomato or a couple of "cuttings". 
Today, on separate journeys down the garden I brought back some apple mint to put in water in the kitchen, a windfall apple, a dahlia that had snapped off in the wind and twice I brought back an egg (not the same egg - 2 different eggs!).

I'm wondering whether its some sort of compulsion not to come home empty-handed? So I'm looking for reassurance that I'm not the only little treasure hunter here.