today I was in the garden and something caught my eye, it was a cuckoo in the garden, I watched her fly over my hedge. I then noticed something in my buckthorn bush and went to investigate. This bush is about 10m high, and up in the top of it looked like a walnut but on closer investigation it appears to be a snail, about 9 m up the trunk.

   
   

Hi all,

This year I sowed the rest of my packed of Incredible F1 in the hope of finally growing decent sweetcorn. The seed sprouted well and grew to a few inches high. Then the seedlings started keeling over. They didn't have what I think of as the usual signs of damping off - overly damp soil and withered sections of stem. I planted them out and even the decent looking ones have died (three survivors out of 30 or so!). I've ordered some more seed and I'll try again – my daughter loves it and we were so excited to grow it this year that I will even look at buying plants if the new seed doesn't take off or is looking too slow to develop.

I've never had luck getting my corn to the plate, but I've also not had problems at the seedling stage before. They were going downhill before transplant so I don't think it's to do with transplant shock or root disturbance.

Any ideas other than damping off? Pro tips to avoid problems with my next batch? Should I just chit them and then transfer to the plot instead of growing into little plants first?

Thanks!

I practice a sort of No Dig, forking out mole or vole runs as needed, which can sometimes be a whole bed, but in general just mulching with compost and grass clippings to keep down the weeds and put goodness back in.
However, I've always left that year's root patch unmulched not wanting to add too much goodness, but this leaves the soil exposed to the heat and rain as well as passing weed seeds. Now I'm thinking I should be mulching here, too. 
I only grow parsnips and carrots, neither particularly successfully, in the roots rotation.
Any thoughts?

This sounds too good to be true. What do you all think?
https://www.supersoil.ie/en-gbw

Today marks our 3rd birthday

Thanks to all of you for making it a fun and informative place to be!

P and I  are going oooh and aaah ATM. From our dining room window we look down on the railway embankment. We occasionally see Muntjac deer grazing but this evening before dinner we looked out and saw a Roe deer together with it's baby. Little one still had its camouflage stripes but was old enough to play a little way from mum. Unfortunately they are too far away for a picture but we've been watching through binoculars absolutely mesmerised.  We haven't seen Roe deer for ages.

Someone on our local Next door site is asking if this is a weed. I haven't a clue, any ideas? The picture isn't great though.

   

Ive got this labeled as star frost echinops -
I dont think it is?
   

Any ideas please??

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I bought one each of Hinnonmaki Red and Hinnonmaki Green from Aldi maybe 3 or 4 years ago. They actually both turned out to be Red but whatever. The sawfly found them in the first year and every year since. I have them in pots due to lack of space in the ground. I think this year is the earliest I've seen sawfly on them. I knew they were there and had picked off a few leaves with tiny caterpillars on, with the intention of spraying the plant with neem and soap before they got out of hand. Then a few days later they've gone from looking really healthy and covered with foliage, to skeletal and almost leafless in the photo. There's also scale insects on some branches. 

I don't really like gooseberries that much and they're difficult to handle due to the spikes, but the flowers are good early forage for bees. 

Can anyone convince me to keep these gooseberry plants before I chuck them in the green bin?

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