Welshonion

Seed companies

Isn't it odd, I find T&M, Suttons, Sarah Raven very shy germinators. Especially for varieties where you get few seeds in a packet.

For veg I go for MoreVeg and The Real Seed Company and the Italian vegetable seeds.  Excellent germination.

Moles

There is an explosive method of destroying moles in UK.  Developed by a Young Farmer I believe.

Only thing is canny farmers like to see the dead bodies before they pay up!

One other method - which I am not advocating, just repeating - is to stand over a mole-hill with a garden fork and thrust the fork into the mole-hill when it heaves.

Moles

Agricultural merchants sell traps.  You will need several, it is no good just setting one.

FIG

Wrong time of year to feed a fig, and pointless, as it will be losing its leaves any time now.

Figs do much better in the sun.  They are on the edge of their range in this country.  Help them out!

Fig tree

Do not wrap your fig, it is hardy.  Can't remember if it was in a pot or the ground.

Remove any figlet bigger than a very small pea; it will fall off anyway in the Spring. If it is big enough to be recognisably a fig, remove it.

I wouldn't feed your new lawn, otherwise it will make a lot of lush growth which will be frost-damaged in a month or so.  If you can nip any weeds out now, that's good.  You will be busy enough in the Spring.

Freezing veg

Vast subject.  Methods vary for different veg.  Some are not sucessful.  Much, much better in my experience to eat all you can fresh and leave freezing veg to to the professionals.  I know lots on this board will disagree, but fresh vegetables are never nasty, veg out of the freezer can be.

Tall Raspberries

You can tip the tops - sounds like a cue for a song - if you like, so they are no higher than you can pick comfortably.  They will do fine as they are, just tied in at six foot and the extra height left free.

Small Trees For Privacy

Is there an arboretum near you where you can go and see some candidates growing?

If you plant a tree that grows higher than their window, they might not be too happy.

Yew is quite fast-growing.  Holly is slow-growing. Privet is fast-growing, evergreen and has blossom which attracts butterflies.

Talkback: How to sow cyclamen seeds

gardeningfantic is right.  The plant knows when to sow seed.  When it is ripe and is shed naturally.

Helleborus niger in family garden- too dangerous?

Anybody on this board have personal knowledge of a child being poisoned by anything in the garden?

The chances of it happening are vanishingly small, I believe.

A child is more likely to be poisoned by pills left carelessly about the house.

Swifts