jim lad

Moving a tree

sorry Jim aint saying anything, I dont know anything about trees but what I would like to ask is when can I prune an apple tree, we gave it a good haircut last year but this year it grew big and a lot of small new branches etc, I would love to really give it a good hair cut again, as last year I dont think we did it right/ or enough, the tree is about 45 years old.

Talkback: Ants

Hello  we to have suffered ants in the house and on the allotment, I dont understand them though !  they only seem to come out at night and into the food cupboard but dont seem to know what they want ? they dont get on any thing that one would think that they would go for and they are rather switched on as when we open the door they run like mad, my wife was told that black pepper will sort them out and so we put it where they come from and it did the trick, but they find another way to get around it,

Jim

Horse Manure - When to Use

Hi  I have an allotment where we are lucky to have a large heap of stable manure ,

its often all used up by the end of march and if one is not quick none left all cleaned up real smart, I used some a few year ago and spread it all over one piece of ground 2inches thick in october, and dug it in early march with little weed growth other than some thistles that just pulled up with no struggle, but I wondered if the weed growth the following years were due to that manuring from the years before, I did wonder at the time just how old the stuff was, I do realise it should be 6 months or more if poss, and as for the manure having some sort of hebiside on it some people on my allotments had a problem and their spuds looked just like they had blight , a sample was sent off and it was confirmed about the stuff that was sprayed onto the grass that is for the horses grazing is to keep down broadleaf growth, sorry I seem to have gone on rather a lot,  Jim

Weeding - a forgotten skill? Discuss ....

hello all! new here! cant say I find weeding therapeutic ha ha, but yes I find weeding

is a must do job, but I suppose I fall into the ignorant catagory some what , I can recognise a weed such as mares tail a real pest but cant really put a name to all the little critters that if left will become big critters, I do get satisfaction of seeing a piece of ground thats kept free of unwanted growth, I am lucky to have an allotment and sometimes struggle to do all I should on it as I lead a busy life! thankfully I have a wife who is also keen to get down and dirty, but sometimes its just the same as teaching a wife to drive ha ha, can cause a few arguments, Jim