Thought I'd do a quick review of these bad boys. I treated myself to a pair of these recently whilst sourcing a hori hori for my mother in laws birthday. 

Here are the okatsune no304 snips.

   


They are made in Japan and they are available for £12. Not the cheapest things in the world, but they feel very sturdy and come with a spare spring. They're not stainless but are super sharp and work great. Only had a play with them today but were great at neatly tidying up a lavender and cutting back raspberry canes, they didn't struggle at all. They were also great for tidying up bits in the veg patch and snipping twine (as my knife was in the shed). 

They are not heavy weight secateurs but are great and more than capable than what they are designed for. 
I treated my dad to the same companies bypass secateurs in spring and he loves them.

Does anyone grow Grasses (not the lawn grass but the ornamental sort) as I have some packets of seed that I will never grow and would be happy to send to someone who would.

Does anyone know a good way to deal with the water at the side of a polytunnel?

I had some potatoes growing quite close to my polytunnel this year and a lot of the deepest rotted. The plants seemed to have grown more roots higher up that were prone to greening even though the plants had been earthed up well.

The advice sought is not about potatoes but about the excessive wet that accumulates along the sides of a polytunnel. What, if anything, do people do to mitigate this?

Look, it has only been three years (I think) and I have (almost) my first fruit. So worth that £5 (touch wood)

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We've done A although we should go back and update it with our progress - when we've sowed, how they growed.

Now its time to compare notes about flowers starting with B that we grow or would like to grow (with reasons) .

Can anyone identify this plant. It grows to about 1 mètre and is found planted in a wild insect friendly garden in Holland. It is growing on a West facing bank in half shade.

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Hello everyone, I’ve tried to vote in the ‘best of’ competitions but there are no photos or options to vote. Is there a problem here or is it just me?!!

Who'd like to compare notes about flowers that we grow or would like to grow (with reasons) - starting with A? We'll move on to the other letters later.
I've been delving in my seedboxes and come up with 6 flowers I'd like to grow next year:-

Antirrhinum/Snap dragons - to play snap with.
Aquilegia - perennial, self seeders, lots of colours
Amaranth - not grown before but birds like the seed heads and can be eaten or dried for flower arrangements
Acroclinum - annual flowers for drying
Agastache/Anise hyssop - can be used for "tea" - good for pollinators
Aster - bright colours ? cut flowers

If I can grow these 6 next year, I'l be happy.

Just for a bit of fun. I’ll post a photo of garden related items. You have until tomorrow to guess what you think it is. Then I’ll let you know what it is. And post the next photo. No clues will be given. So don’t ask   . I’ll keep posting photos until I get board or you do     .

First one is easy.

   

We've had words that make you laugh which brought me to thinking that there are load of weird place names, let's see what we come up with, it might be a good geography lesson too.  So amusing/strange/downright peculiar place names please.

I'll start 

I saw a village name near Andower Hants while out and about yesterday called Smannell.  It doesn't easily roll of the tongue and made me smile
The river Piddle in Dorset 
I'm not far from the village of Nether Wallop
In NZ there was a place called Waikikamukau. (Why kick a moo cow) when passing as kids we always asked 'why not?'