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That one’s a good vibrant blue @Clare G, now on my list .

@waterbutYou might like to listen to the first 7-8 minutes of More or Less - Can you get £71,000 on benefits? - BBC Sounds For a discussion of the nuances of this claim by the Centre for Social Justice ( they are not comparing apples with apples), also this might be worth a look at Lies,...

One thing I would do if I was planning my garden anew is to put a paved path all around the outside, wide enough to stand a stepladder on or push a wheelbarrow. It provides safe access to the back of the borders for weeding and to hedges and fences for trimming. You think it is going to take up...

Landrace Gardening by Joseph Lofthouse is an interesting book about this kind of thing.

It needs a good prune, I'd remove perhaps half the branches coming from the base, any crossing branches and any obviously dead growth. I wonder if it could be a red currant rather than a black currant.

Welcome G but for better advice enter the area you live in.

Personally I prick all seedlings out into those cell trays, the ones I don't are things like onions which I sow three or four seeds to each cell and plant out the whole cell when it comes to that time.I don't think you will find any hard and fast rules how you do things, people often find...

Thank you for the replies, really appreciate the insights and advice

Thank you @On the Levels, those small irises really do have one of the best blues in the garden, shame they don’t last long .

I think I poked them vertically into the compost. If I remember rightly they're quite big and easy to handle individually. If you have lots of seed you could try different ways and see what works for you.

I use pencil, then at the end of season I collect all the labels. The ones that didn't break from the light get washed (using sponge and soap), then I use eraser to clean whatever written.

The last one for now, was on the Thorny olive tree that the bird table and hanging feeder are on. It's another variegated leaf plant. It's quite early in the year to be trying this, but I've got nothing to loose.As you have probably noticed from all the bird photos recently, they have become...

I’d be surprised if Beth Chatto’s gardeners use slug pellets or insecticides . Birds tend to be vocal here in the morning and out looking for worms mainly early morning and at dusk. Sound for me also includes wind through the trees and swishing through dried grasses in winter.