I like Sungold tomatoes (a lot) but I'm mindful of of a wish to grow less F1 varieties, although I'm not succeeding very well in that direction. Anyone know of a non-F1 alternative to Sungold's sweetness?

I’m having trouble getting any manure from the farm. There’s only so many times you can ask. I was wondering if I buried a layer of daggings or fleece under the compost/ soil mix if it would actually add anything to the ground? Or would I just be wasting my time? 
Any advice would be appreciated. I’d really like to plant things but as my sunflower photo proves. I really need to add something to the ground . The 2 groups that are growing reasonably well. Had some old / previously used compost added to the hole before planting. The rest went straight in the ground.

   

Do you feed your beans? 

I never have. But wondering if I should. Especially as they are in a container (fish box ). Then I wondered what to feed them? Do I use my home made sheep daggings liquid feed or tomato feed or something else? 
Any advice would be appreciated.

I've killed all my cucurbits!   I'm absolutely devastated. 

I've got no one to blame but myself which is even worse. We have two sprayers, a middle sized and a big one. I mostly, but very seldom, use the smaller of the two. P has used the bigger one but not for some 5-10 years. I made up my potassium bicarbonate solution and put it in the midllesized sprayer which failed to pump. So I transferred the mixture to the bigger one and merrily sprayed every cucurbit leaf I had both upper and lower surface, against powdery mildew. I bet you can guess the rest of the story.  Half way through the day, which was cloudy, I noticed the courgettes were drooping then later on they were all collapsing.  I fear the big sprayer might have had weed killer residue but neither P or I have any recollection of using weedkiller in the near past,  it's just something we don't use.  I didn't think to swill out the sprayer, even if that would have helped. 

I have washed the leaves with a hose as well as possible but fear the worst. I understand cucurbits are especially sensitive to herbicides. All my courgettes, squashes and cucumbers are toast. I feel like throwing my hands up a giving up gardening.

I know egg shells broken up are a source of calcium and slug deterrent . Can any shell be broken up and put on the garden? Having mussels for tea   .

Well the mildew is starting up on the courgettes and I've a couple of spots on  leaves on a gh cucumber. Today I'm going to spray with a milk solution but does anyone have experience of a different tactic?

This morning chatting over the fence with the neighbour. He was tell me he’d sown all the seeds I’d given him. Squeezed them in every where and it’s going to look like a patch work quilt when they all come up. I reassured him, that was perfectly acceptable method of gardening. Then I enquired if he’d worked out what the unusual leaved tomato was. That he’d mentioned to me a few days ago. He scampered off to the greenhouse to pick a leaf. Hands it over to me……..
That’s a sunflower, sweetheart. Very quickly followed be me laughing…….. a lot   . 
Him saying how did they get there? Then remembered planting them. Then saying don’t tell Bob. I was still laughing at him   . 

Let’s hear your stories.

Morning all. I've found my rhubarb infested with black fly and it looks like a caterpillar is eating its leaves.  I've always had a black fly problem elsewhere but never anything eating rhubarb leaves. There's always something sent to try us.

I've got 3 Orangeto toms in fairly big pots

                 

They're designated semi-determinate and benefits from slight support. So I plonked them in the big pots with a bit of support and left them alone. As you can see they've sprawled well and are contuing to do so.  I think I'll have to put a central cane with a wigwam of string to support the outlying branches.

The question is what should I have done with a semi-determinate plant by way of pruning.  The Web is rather confusing.

I used to be fastidious in the removal of weeds from my herbaceous/shrub borders, initially because of laziness I have now come to realise the beauty in what we call weeds! 
They say a weed is just an unwanted plant in a certain location,but these unwanted plants can turn into things of beauty in the eye of the beholder. 

I do however keep part of my lawn well tended which to me is complementary to the haphazzard plants in the borders surrounding it. Part of the shaped lawn at the top of the garden I leave to it's own devices as well and cut maybe twice a year? I also have a clump of nettles in an out of the way shady spot.

I have noticed that my less formal borders are attracting more birds, butterflies, hoverflies and bees which I can look at out ofthe kitchen window whilst washing the dishes.

There is no soil to be seen in the borders and to me it is a thing of beauty!