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like beetroot, seed. Again, the plant will focus its energy on seed production at the expense of the leaf, or root you are growing it for. Remove flowers as soon as you see them, water well. Moving the pot to a shadier spot can also help (sun can stress

by slugs and snails, and I spent many hours watching blackbirds foraging among the debris.In spring I tackled the garden in one go, removing leaves spiked on emerging bulbs, clearing spent stems and staking perennials. Only the still-sleeping frogs

outdoor jobs: sweep and scrub the patio.The pond is full of duckweed and not much else, so I'll remove that and find out what happened to the watercress and water forget-me-not (bounced out by bathing pigeons, probably). Then I need to top up a few pots

'm sure some of my plants would have thrived a lot more if they hadn’t been compromised by munching grubs, but nothing looks worse for their attentions. I actually found a good use for them: last month I spent half an hour trying to remove a teasel from a

over and remove it once a layer of ice has formed. If the pond has already frozen, make a hole by leaving a pan of hot water on the surface, allowing the base of the pan to melt the ice. Froglife also warns against smashing or pouring hot water

of the orange sat in my gloomy east London flat.My orange tree has been beset by problems since I received it as a gift six years ago. First it had mealybugs. For six months I regularly used soapy water to remove the bugs, their sticky secretions and resulting

.We're challenging you to grow the world's tallest sunflower. The current world record stands at 8.03m, and is held by German flight attendant Hans Peter Schiffer. He took the record in 2009, but it's not been held by a Brit since 1976 (that was Frank Kelland, from

times their own depth - to get them flowering again. It's also important to remove faded blooms to avoid the plants wasting energy on seed production, then wait at least six weeks before cutting back the foliage, as the leaves convert the sun's energy

of hot water on the surface, allowing the base of the pan to melt a hole. Then leave a plastic ball in the hole overnight, and remove it the following morning when the pond surface has refrozen. This enables noxious gases to leave the pond. ARC also warns

have as a lawn. Our first job when we moved into our new flat was to lift the paved courtyard at the back, remove the sand and builders' rubble and buy in lots of topsoil (this used up my garden budget, so we couldn't buy any turf). We then sowed some