I have an old airfrier that still works, but not in the good enough condition to pass to a charity shop, as it has some broken parts, though safe to use, I used it to sterilise some soil, switching it on for five minutes was long enough to take the soil up to a temperature of 60c, not sure what the cost would be with using it but, will use it again when the sun is out and I have power coming from the solar panels

An interesting article about the effect of cardboard on the soil. Worth a read. I'm interested in your views on it.

https://gardenprofessors.com/the-cardboa...jcHZBaRJOs

Not 100% this is the correct section for this, so if any fellow admin want to move it please do. 
This is great but I had no idea it was a thing. It helps the environment and small businesses and is great support for your beans    .

 https://ncfed.org.uk/news/beanpoles/

PSB = Purple Sprouting Broccoli - a brassica I associate with After Christmas - not much else to pick in the garden time. Also, one that seems to take a lot of growing space for a long time.

Sorting through my seeds tonight I found a packet of Suttons "Purple Sprouting Continuity Mix" which claims to have a 6 month harvest period, from October - March from a May sowing. 
The packet contains equal quantities of 3 different PSB - Rudolph, Red Arrow and Cardinal (75 seeds in total) 
Also in my seed box is Summer Purple, sown in April/May, harvested August onwards.
In theory, I could add these to the Continuity Mix, sow them all in May and be picking PSB from August to March.
Its tempting BUT all the seeds are way past their "Sow by" dates and I don't have much success with brassicas in any form. Remind me in May and maybe I'll give it a whirl.

I ventured over the allotments today and sat and watched a pair of great tits measuring one of my three nest boxes, must have flown in and out a dozen times, no nest building materials being carried yet.

Last year I had two occupied by great tits and the other by a pair of blue tits.  I love watching them.

48 red roses for the 48 years we spent together.       Took them to her grave and spent some time with Helen. 

Strange how certain things affect you more than others. When we were courting she sent me a Valentines card with a little poem, summat about kisses and making  a miss a misses?. I took that as a hint and proposed to her! 

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I have no greenhouse experience, but am aware that some tomato varieties will be much happier/more likely to ripen in a greenhouse than outside. I have ended up with seeds from more than 20 varieties of tomato (mostly sent by you guys!) There's no way that I can grow them all this year, but I'd like to give quite a few a go so need to start planning now.

To help me, I wonder if anyone can tell me which of these would really only be worth growing in a greenhouse? I've left out the ones I know are micro-dwarfs as I know they will do fine in a sunny window.

Alicante
Atomic grape
Blush
Buffalo Horn
Cherry Tomato Mix
EM Champion
Gaillardia
Galina
Golden Grape 
Mat-Su Express
Malachite Box
Maskotka
Matt's Hornett
Northern Lights
Orange banana
Orange jazz
Oregon Spring 
Red Veranda 
Tigerella - this is very old seed so getting sown this year no matter what.


The reason I ask is that I want to get the tomatoes that will end up in the greenhouse into the propagator today, but I have a huge amount of work stuff on and don't have the time to research each tomato variety right now. Hoping the hive mind can help me out!

A couple of mine have gone bad, they were all in a net bag outside in the coal house, what am I doing wrong?

They were touching flesh against flesh.

Seedling widger thingy.

I am planning to transplant some toms growing under lights indoors. To save them getting chilled I  brought all the kit indoors, filled pots, label and widger, etc.  

Now I'm sure we all have a favourite thingy to help seedlings out of their comfy little pot into a bigger hopefully comfier pot, what's yours?  Mine was a pencil thin plastic widger with a slender fork at one end and just a rounded end on the other, until it broke.  I can't find a like for like replacement so I put up with various conical ended and forked widgers but I do miss my favourite. In addition I have an 8" sock knitting needle (pokey stick point at both ends) to rease roots etc, it's very useful.