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Hi.Thanks for your responseAs i mentioned i said renew "some" of the compost not all.And yes understand the benefits of manual watering in concerns of monitoring the soil and plants. I currently have a small amount of raised beds. 7 4x4ft beds that hold around 600l compost each. I work away...

Hi everyone,It's been a while but I suddenly remembered this discussion and thought I would post an update.Some really good recommendations had been made and I nearly included some of them (e.g. vinca minor, until my partner vetoed it). In the end I went for flowering quinces ("Pink Storm")...

Just my thoughts but I hate using grit on the surface of posts for the one reason that you can't see the compost, so if it's wet or dry under the grit you don't really know.

That looks perfect, I would pot on gradually as you are doing. Putting any plant into too big a pot can slow it down.

I use water from a butt caught off a roof all the time, even seedlings and young plants. I think rain water is safer/better/more natural than chlorinated from the mains. I do use rainwater carefully though and aim the water at the soil/base of plants, especially with salad crops. A bit of...

Give it a good soak & feed.

Sweet peas just last the summer. When I deadhead I just nip back to the next split. Some roses have a mass of blooms so you are only nipping back a couple of inches. Some flowers you nip back quite a bit. If your annuals are wilting they probably need watering. I have some larger annuals in...

Then just plant them on the ground. The ridge is only for heavy, waterlogged clay soil.

Hi Thanks for your advice in the past. Changed the size of pots and some greenery is returning. What should I feed them on? Thanks Tommy

Got it. Thanks for the advice. I have now chopped it back. I can actually see two new heads appearing at the base.

Hi,The pot looks big enough for a while, the test is if it dries out the compost every day or when you can see a bundle of fine white roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.Dont mistake a bit of wilting as dryness in this very hot weather , if it does and the compost is moist, just place...

Acer 'Garnet' (Japanese Maple)Equisetum arvense (Mare's Tail)Geranium (Crane's Bill)Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh Poppy)Possibly Chamereion angustifolium (Rosebay Willowherb)Nick

Many thanks both

Thanks all, I'll probably 'try' to keep a couple alive indoors when it starts to get colder, but even my conservatory gets cold in winter overnight after the central heating switches off, but the greenhouse will be a lot colder if I leave them there. At least I've fitted an automatic watering...

Hello Phil, well done! You've certainly got the Wisteria cracked now So....onto the exciting part where you make some changes. Keep us posted

I think the point is unless you have a Lupin that repels aphids your not going to get rid of them easily.I think the Lupin aphid is specific to Lupin so can't really see how growing something non Lupin is going to deter them from Lupin.

Thanks a lot

I'm not keen on applying anything to the soil I don't need to - added expense! If I can get away with just preparing the existing soil and laying the turf (with a couple of lengths of gravel trenches for peace of mind) then that's what I'll do!To me, the topsoil just looks like soil with a few...

If it was mine I'd cut off all the old fronds (being very careful not to cut the emerging shoots). I did this on all my ferns back in late March - both deciduous (Drypoteris cristata) and evergreen (Polystichum polyblepharum) and both have come up a treat, looking really lush and perky.

Welcome to the forum @Joe Bore it's nice to see you have an interest in gardening, surprisingly not a lot of people do, i can tell you this from experience, if you enjoy it, however you start it's always a work in progress and there's always a lot of defining factors in that but you'll get the...